A Moment Gone Awry
by Adam Durlock
Summary: A spell gone wrong, a forced teleportation narrowly averted. What do two strangers do when they meet in a world not their own? Things don't always seem to work out as they work together to get through dimensions and time.
1. Gone Awry

Ranma 1/2, FullMetal Alchemist and a Multicross after those main two. Characters will be slightly OoC as I'm still getting used to writing again as evident with my other story down there. I hope it's not so bad that I get flamed.

Also, Post Manga Ranma, Chapter 99 of FMA for Ed.

You'll notice that I tend to rely a lot on character dialogue to get my points across. I'm trying to tone it down and hopefully it won't be as bad past this first chapter.

Anyway, this will be kind of like Sliders with a bit of time travel. Ranma and Ed are the main characters, though Ryoga will show up thanks to him getting lost, and Alphonse may make an appearance.

Also note that this fic is rated M for a reason, though this first chapter isn't going to really show it. Things will get violent and descriptive later on once I get my groove back as that's pretty much the thing I'm best at writing. If you don't like mature situations or immature responses to mature situations, you might as well head out pretty quickly.

Further notes at the bottom of this chapter and all there after.

* * *

_**A Moment Gone Awry**_

_In Japan: Nerima Ward_

"No more." a voice hissed lowly, a man sitting in the shadows surrounded only by candlelight. "No more will I put up with you and the way you steal _her_ attentions." There were crude markings drawn around him, a pallid visage of the homespun sorceror. He was Hikaru Gosunkugi and he was not a happy person. The main reason for his unpleaseantness was Ranma Saotome, which in Nerima, par for the course. Normally the boy would be using Voodoo, and dolls to get his point across, yet his newest purchase was begging to be used and it was finally the right time, after months and months of waiting. Tonight was the night, after all, the energy coming from a violent meteor shower would be perfect for the use of this one spell.

Right?

It didn't matter either way to Gosunkugi, as he pulled out the scroll and spread it out before him on his legs. "You'll be gone for good this time, Saotome." he cackled with glee, ignoring the fact that parts of the scroll were scratched out. As the meteor storm went overhead at well after 2 AM in the morning, Hikaru Gosunkugi started to chat, badly mangling the ancient scriipture and making it up as he went. Hell, if it only half worked, there'd be no problem what so ever. At the end, he pressed his hands together and pressed them down onto the circle he had drawn.

Not but a few moments later, his candles flared and left him in the darkness, the spell finished, leaving the pale boy laughing in glee and madness.

On the other side of town, Ranma Saotome, the recipient of the spell was pulled down into a portal of darkness by shadowy hands, slipping away into his newfound banishment while completely sleep the entire time. All that was left was the floor of which he slept upon next to his father. A single note, magically placed was left in his wake. No one would read it until morning, and by then, there would have been no way to find Ranma, even if they had believed what it had said.

When all was said and done, there would be many people pissed off at Ranma, after all, everything was his fault. It didn't matter that he was the one spirited away, it never mattered that it really was never his fault or idea for things to happen. It sure didn't matter that he was the one that almost always fixed things either. Nope. The ungrateful boy would have to be found so he could apologize for running away. Of course, there were only two people in the Tendo Dojo that really believed that Ranma would do the right thing and he wasn't at fault. One was the usual suspect, the other was to be a stark surprise in Genma Saotome.

* * *

_Amestris: Central_

Edward Elric, the FullMetal Alchemist, went wide-eyed at what was going on. He was really at a loss for words. To many details had escaped him, and just now as the Five-point Alchemy circle was engaged, he finally knew what was going on. Comprehension hit him like a brick to the face. He could feel the energy fluctuating in the air and he cursed to himself as he tried to steady his stance, it was then that Ed noticed the giant eyeball sporuting up from the floor was the cause of his imbalance. "What is this?!"

He bit back a curse, the eye was the same as Pride's shadows and the same as Truth from The Gate. Without thinking, he slapped his hands together, reverting the blade on his auto-mail arm and repeating the motion and slamming both hands down onto the eye. This was his last chance to evade the enemy, but as his body started to deconstruct, he wasn't sure if he would be able to get away or if he really was being teleported away. '_Shitshitshit.'_ Ed swore mentally, looking around at the people that were surrounding him as he disappeared into the void of darkness.

The next thing the older Elric brother knew was that he was falling, endlessly falling towards two gates. One was his destination, already half open, arms reaching out to grab him. He was to be one of the sacrifies, but Edward refused to become a pawn in some sick and twisted game played by those damn Homonculi. Using his limbs to hit himself and force his way to the closed door, he eventually made a little progress as it loomed closer. Twisting and turning to avoid the hands, he crashed into the door, forcing it to open and he disappeared past the veil.

"I'll be back you bastard!" he yelled out as his body started to deconstruct once more in the darkness. "You better wait! I'll kill you you!" he snarled out as the rest of his body deconstructed for the second time in bare moments.

Further underground, Izumi Curtis landed carefully as her body reconstructed, Alphone Elric's armored container landed on the ground, crashing lifelessles. Edward Elric was supposed to reconstruct and fall next...yet nothing came.

* * *

_The Elemental Countries: Land of Fire, Konohagakure (The Hidden Village of the Leaf)_

"Hokage-sama."

The voice caused The Fifth Hokage, Tsunade Senju to blink a few times, having fallen asleep in a nap from all the paperwork. "What?" she grumbled, pushing herslef fully into her chair.

"There's been a disturbance just beyond the gates." The monotone voice said from the shadows, an ANBU just giving a report.

"Define disturbance for me." Tsunade mumbled, raising a blonde eyebrow and rubbing her temples a little as she sat back in her large chair.

"There we some shadows opening up from the ground, hands pushing up a boy sleeping on a futon mat." The ANBU member said softly. "It was directly in the middle of the pathway for at the main gate and the boy seems to be snoring."

"Seriously?" She was fully awake now. Portals just didn't open up and push people out like that. "Does he look like he's from the village?"

"No, Hokage-sama. The records have already been looked over, he's not in any records or the Bingo book either." the voice continued to respond as if out of the middle of nowhere.

"Alright. Keep an eye out and inform me the moment he wakes up. Contact Shizune and have her go take a look as well. It might just be a trap, or it might just be something completely innocent." Tsunande shrugged after a moment's thought. "Dismi..." she was cut off as she felt another presence join with the first ANBU member.

"Hokage-sama, there's been a second event at the gates. A blonde child has fallen out of a gate in the middle of the air." The second ANBU, this one female, said.

"A gate?" Tsunande said, pushing her chair back and standing up.

"Yes Hokage-sama, the gate opened up at about 9 metres in the air. I was the only one that got a look at it, we were all concentrating on the other boy when I felt something...wrong...in the air." The female ANBU said.

"Explain." The first ANBU disappeared after that, leaving only the hidden presence of the second.

"It was as if a my entire body was doused in ice water and then shocked with several shocks. It was a darkness like the first portal the first boy was pushed out of, just larger." the ANBU said quietly, her voice going low as if in contemplation. "I came as soon as I saw the boy falling, he may need medical attention. Also, his trajectory was taking him onto the first boy."

"I think I'm getting a migraine." Tsunande mumbled, half jokingly. "Alright. I guess I better..." she trailed off, sensing a third presence. "Now what is it?"

"Sorry, Hokage-sama, but it seems like the two boys are fighting each other now. The second fell upon the first, waking him up. I believe they're caught in the moment and don't realize what is going on. They don't seem to be aware of their surroundings." Another female voice this time. "They both seem to be adept at Taijutsu too."

"Alright, is Guy back from his mission with his team?" Tsunande muttered, starting to get annoyed. She really doubted he was too, it'd be just her day.

"Not as of yet. Hatake Kakashi-sempai is however." The second had spoken.

"Contact him, get him to meet up with Shizune at the gates and try to get these boys to stop fighting." Tsunande paused and nodded to herself. "Also, make sure a hospital room is ready, just in case. If I'm needed, contact me and I'll make my way there."

"As you wish, Hokage-sama." both said and disappeared, leaving Tsunande alone with her paperwork.

"This week is starting to suck." she mumbled, pulling a flask out of one of her desk drawers, uncorking it swiftly and taking a swig. "What else can go wrong? At least the brat is gone so he won't bug me for missions." She mused slightly. It was time to check up on Sakura's latest bit of training too. More than likely she'd almost be finished with the latest test.

* * *

_Outside of the Gates_:

Ranma Saotome was peacefully sleeping, blissfully unaware as he rolled over onto his side, grunting at the bit of bright like. "Pops, close the blinds..." he mumbled. He didn't realize he was no longer at the Tendo Dojo, nor did he realize he was on the ground. It wasn't much different from the floor after all. Of course, the screaming voice, yelling from the sky woke him up out of his dreaming reverie, though not suddenly enough as he felt something land beside him, something hitting his arm and shoving him out of his bedding.

It wasn't the boot out of the window he was used to, no, the feeling jolting into his arm was hard, falling from above, not booting from behind.

Just a moment before, Edward Elric was reconstructed as the gate opened, he was facing head first towards the ground. "Oh hell no!" he shouted out, wincing as he saw he was about to land on some guy. He didn't have enough time to twist his body from only 9 metres so that he could land on his feet. "Oh, Winry's gonna kill me..." he muttered as he shifted his right arm ahead of him so that hit auto-mail would take the impact and hopefully he wouldn't land on the poor guy. Why the hell he was sleeping in the middle of the ground didn't even register.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the impact threw Ed off balance and he half landed on the mysterious person, breaking his fall. He pushed off, accidentally pushing the person from his bedding as well. More concerned about his arm, he twisted and rotated it to check and there seemed to be no damage. "Whew...that was close." he sighed with relief.

"What the hell was that for?!" Ed heard the voice from behind.

"Hey, relax, it was an accident." Ed muttered in response, turning and looking at the guy. He was taller than Ed, enough so that it caused his eyebrow to twitch. He was also more muscular to boot. Of all the damn look from where the Gate had sent him.

"Bullshit. I don't take kindly to being woken up. Especially on Sundays!" Ranma snarled out, looking down at the blonde person before him. There seemed to be something off with his Ki, it felt different, and he knew he shouldn't be goading the guy into a fight, but he could tell the one before him was a decent Martial Artist, though the bunches of bruises and cuts here and there were something someone shouldn't be wearing after just simple combat.

"Sunday? What the hell? It's a Tuesday, you idiot." Ed said in a snarl.

"I'm not an idiot you shrimp." Ranma said back, accidentally finding the right button to push.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A MICROSCOPIC MIDGET SO SMALL YOU COULD STEP ON?!?" Edward yelled, forgetting he was just in a fight and launching himself directly at the guy in front of him. His right fist curled up, launching itself towards the taller boy's face.

"Midget." Ranma said simply, bending to the side, looking at the mechanical fist. There was something very off about the limb, the entire thing up his shoulder felt wrong, he could only see up a little into the shorter person's red jacket and it all seemed mechanical. "Short stuff." he muttered out with a girn as he swayed to the side to avoid a kick from the boy's left leg. It felt the same way to Ranma. "You'll never hit me like that, Tiny." He was awake now and using his most practiced move. '_Saotome Style Trash Talking.'_

"Why you son of a bitch." Ed swore at the taller guy, throwing out a few more attacks, kicks, feights, punches. Nothing seemed to connect, they were coming close though. Not even a centimetre away from the taller one. He started to swear louder as he upped the pace and stopped being nice about his attacks, ignoring the pain from his, well to him, minor wounds.

Ranma started to notice not but a few attacks later, this guy was trying to take him down for real. Semi-lethal attacks that were assuredly meant to stop an enemy from moving. '_He's got experience in real fights. To bad I'm better.'_ Ranma grinned, in a straight fist-fight, no one could beat him, he was the best after all. However, it was time to experiment and a few punches later, Ranma tapped a few places on the smaller one's right arm the moment it came. He frowned at the feeling. It wasn't flesh at all, pressure points weren't working with that.

Ed's eyes however, widened slightly, he could feel the taps and he knew exactly what they were, suddenly he was thankfully he attacked with his right arm instead of his left that last time. '_I think I'm out of my league in a fist fight.'_ The thought was bitter but contained a bit of respect. After all, he was Edward Elric, genius Alchemist and he knew the human body inside and out. He knew those pressure points were meant to put his arm completely out of use, thankfully it was auto-mail. To prove his theory, he decided to launch a spinkick at the other's face with his left leg and wasn't surprised when he felt the raven-haired teen tapping the leg pressure points that were meant to do the same.

Ranma's fingers were tapping with practiced ease, and he felt the exact same thing and with that he nodded. The leg was the same as that metal fist, and he was allowed to test that last one out, he could tell. The shorty had given that attack free of charge and Ranma suddenly had a little more respect for the guy. Of course, he was a bit miffed that he didn't get to sleep in, but he did suppose it might not have been his fault. Speaking of which...

"Where the hell am I anyway?" Ranma muttered out loud, parrying an attack to try and push the shorter one off balance. "This doesn't look like Japan."

"Hell if I know, this sure isn't Central." Edward responded with his own frown. It was a good question. "Edward Elric." he said, throwing another punch, now it felt like he was sparring with Alphonse.

"Ranma Saotome." Ranma responded to Ed. "It would seem we have an audience too." he grumbled, using d's final attack, a kick, responding with his own lifted foot to use as a spring board and launch himself back towards his bed. He also realized he was just wearing an undershirt and some pajama pants, suddenly glad he didn't sleep in just boxers.

"We've had one since I fell from the sky." Ed said, looking towards the strangely dressed...people...in various masks, they looked vaguely ceramic to him too, well, some of them anyway.

Two of them stood out from the rest in that they weren't wearing cloaks and masks. One was a woman of middling height, again taller than Elric, (W_hy the hell is everyone taller than me!?_ -Ed), with black hair and dark eyes. She was looking at them guardedly. She was wearing somewhat nondescript clothing, and from the way she stood, she was probably hiding weapons in there. The second one had silver-gray hair, dressed in a bodysuit, vest and had a facemask on. For some reason he was wearing a headband that covered a portion of his face leavin just his right eye to be seen. His posture lead to the casual viewer to figure he was bored. He was also half reading a small book, snapping it shut once the little fight had ended

Thankfully, Ranma and Ed were anything but casual.

"Are you two done?" the gray-haired one asked casually.

"Oh, totally." Ranma said absently, shrugging as he bent down to wrap up his bed. "Just some morning exercise and all." It really didn't feel like morning to him though. Great.

"Seriously. You get the day wrong and the time? It's closer to evening now." Ed said with a small snort, dropping his arms to his side, ready to clap them together for a sudden use of alchemy if he needed though. These guys screamed danger to him.

"It was Saturday night when I went to bed, making it Sunday morning to me when I wake up." Ranma retorted as he finished wrapping up his bed, picking it up, it looked like a decent sized sleeping bag when he was done and he seemed to make it disappear behind his back as if it wasn't there.

This caused a look of surprise from everyone around to be sure, he could hear someone wondering about how he did a jutsu without any visible seals. Whatever the hell that meant.

"And it was Tuesday evening when I was fighting failed experiments in some backass maze of Central. You point? Also, how'd you do that?" Ed responded in kind, wondering how the hell you made matter like that just simply disappear.

"Hidden Weapons Technique. Useful for holding camping supplies, extra clothing and whatnot." Ranma said with a shrug, directing his gaze to one of the masked people.

"Right, right." The wild gray haired man said after a moment. "Too bad you're both wrong and it's Thursday afternoon."

"Seriously?" The two responded in unison.

"Do I look like a person that would be distrustful?" the taller man responded with what looked like an eyegrin.

"Yes." Ranma said promptly. Ed keeping his mouth shut.

"He's got you there Kakashi." the non-masked person said, still guardedly but with a smile on her face.

"Cheeky brats." Kakashi muttered, "Well, Shizune, it's your call."

"Why's it my call, you're the ranking Jonin." She pointed it, turning to him.

"You're the Hokage's persona aide." He rejoined cheerfully.

"Jonin?" Ranma asked suddenly, his eyes going flat. "Aw, shit, I'm in a land of ninja, aren't I?" he grumbled a little and took his own guarded pose. Someone was going to pay for this when he got home.

"Relax, kid. We're just here to make sure you don't attack the village. Thankfully you kept your little fight outside of the gates." Kakashi said with a shrug. "Speaking of which, you want those wounds taken a look at while we ask you both some questions?" he directed the second part to Edward who just rolled his shoulders in a shrug.

"Great. Shizune, will you show them the way? I want to get out of here before Guy shows up." Kakashi deadpanned back to his fellow ninja before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Honestly." Shizune said with a grumble, letting out a sigh and relaxing before nodding at the ANBU beside her. "Go report to Lady Tsunade." Shizune turned back and looked at the two. "Follow me to the hospital, and for the Kami's sake, don't do anything suspicious."

Ranma twitched slightly at that last word. "Just so you know, because of that I'm going to get splashed with water and suddenly be suspicious." He grumbled a little bit as he started following, Ed following, keeping silent and looking around.

"How's that?" Shizune asked, it'd be easier if they volunteered information than giving them over to Anko while Ibiki was off on a forced vacation.

"I've got a magical curse." He said simply. "Cold water transforms me, hot water changes me back."

"Magic doesn't exist." Ed piped up instantly, breaking his own silence, directed his golden eyed gaze back to Ranma.

"If it doesn't exist, how come I transform and a bunch of other people change too, huh?" Ranma snorted. "Pops turns into a Panda, Ryoga into a little black pig, Mousse turns into a duck..."

"A hair care product turns into a duck?" Shizune butted in with a few confused blinks, looking back at them.

"Er, no. It's the guy's name. It's apparently a Chinese Amazon naming thing. They sound eerily familiar to hair care products but they're really not." Ranma shrugged absently. "I know a lot of people with weird names. On of them was named Pantyhose Taro, he turnss into something too."

Ed snorted at the last name. "Poor bastard. How'd he get a name like that? Actually, no wait. I don't want to know. And I still don't believe in magic, I'm a scientist, if I can't explain it, it doesn't exist." Ed nodded resolutely. Omitting the fact that his brother's soul was housed in an vintage armor from just a little bit of blood.

"Sounds rather snobbish. How old are you anyway?" Ranma asked suddenly as they took a turn down one of the roads and saw the hospital in sight.

"Er, almost sixteen." Ed shrugged slightly. "You?"

"Almost Eighteen...I think." Ranma blinked a few times. "Has it really been two years at the Dojo? 'Eh, I never really celebrated my birthday for as long as I remember. I think Pops gave me something once a year at random when we were out on that long trip o' ours. I dunno when my birthday is really. No biggie I guess." he shrugged slightly, not catching the somewhat horrified looks on the others faces. Even Ed liked to celebrate his birthday with Al, it was a little thing to look forward too.

"That doesn't sound healthy." Shizune spoke softly. "It's an important day celebrating whom you are."

"I guess." Ranma said sheepishly, scratching the base of his neck just under his pig-tail. "I guess, outside of these last couple of years I've just been on the road for so long trainin'. Guess Pops didn't think it was needed." the martial artist shrugged slightly. "Really, it's around the same time every year, I think it's in the next couple of days or something."

They stopped talking as they got to the enterance of the hospital, a rather large building and Shizune led them inside, stopping at the counter for a moment before beckoning the two teens to follow her. Ranma thought the fullbody suits were kind of silly looking while Ed looked around blankly. The entire building felt weird to him, as if there was some kind of odd Alchemy going around somewhere. "This entire building has places that feel weird to me." Ed shuddered after a moment.

Shizune frowned as they paused outside of one of the hallways. "How many places feel weird right now?"

"Three." Ed responded.

"I can feel a build up of Ki that's being steadily released...and absorbed in three different places too actually." Ranma added in. "Actually, no. I feel a subtely but massive power beyond this door. Like it's concentrated or something."

Shizune frowned a bit further, taking that information in. They could feel the medical jutsu, from a distance no less? There were three minor treatments for an accident that were going on. It had been what she was overseeing before she was called to see the disturbance. Maybe it had to deal with the way they were displaced to just outside of the village. But Ranma noticing Tsunade? Though, he called it Ki, not Chakra. "The person behind the door is the leader of the Village, she has her own personal questions to ask you." Shizune slid the door open for the two of them to walk in, closing the door behind her.

As soon as the door closed behind them, Ranma's entire body tensed. His situational awareness training kicked in and he didn't like the feeling, he was also suddenly grateful for the old panda for the hellish training it had involved when he was seven. If he counted himself and Edward, there really seemed like there were only four people in the room. Yet he could feel the Ki signatures of three other people and Ed nor Shizune seemed to have noticed. Nor did the person sitting in a chair looking out the window. The worst part was that two of the Ki signatures felt like those watching him from ealier, the third however felt twisted and wrong. Regardless of as such, these people were definitely Ninja, and they were stronger than 'Natsu. If push came to shove he might need to stop using his toned down 'civilian area' powers and start busting loose.

Snapped out of her thoughts, he looked at the woman as turned around at Shizune's voice. "Hokage-sama, these are the boys mentioned ealier." Shizune's voice was soft and Ranma noticed out of the corner of his eye that she was looking around, settling on where two of the ninja were transformed. She did know after all, at least about the them, what about the third?

"Thank you, Shizune." The woman spoke, her voice gentle, but there was an edge to it, it felt older than it sounded. She turned fully and looked at Ranma and Edward, both of their gazes were directed to her fully and they stood at attention. Ranma could finally tell where that massive build up was, that mark on her forehead. Edward however seemed oblivious to the majority of the situation, but this woman, to him, was assuredly in charge. Maybe it would be best if he was actually on good behaviour instead of the tone he usually took with superiors like Colonel Womanizer.

The woman paused, nodding a moment in thought and finally asked, "Why are you two in my village?"

"We were invited by that Kakashi guy as I recall it." Ranma said flippantly, though a grin was on his face. "Seriously though? I have no clue. I dunno why I ended up out there. Last night I went to bed at the place I was stayin' at, this mornin' I wake up to s...er...him falling on me." he jerks a thumb at Ed, remembering to not insult the obviously shorter person, especially considering his loud outburst from ealier. "You know, I'm surprised I haven't gotten splashed yet..." he mused softly, more to himself as Ed started to speak up.

"I was in a fight with some...things..." Ed said with a frown that suddenly turned to a smirk, "Someone then started to teleport me, I was unwilling by the way, and I messed with their array somehow. I ended up crashing through the wrong gate and fell down on this guy."

To Shizune and Tsunade, it seemed insane, it was obvious by the looks on their faces but that just caused both of the boys to laugh, but Ranma took a look of indifference to his features. "Not to be rude, but I gotta ask somethin'."

"Go ahead." Tsunade nodded, looking intrigued.

"Since you're the leader of this place, village, whatever." He frowned, trying to make sure this didn't envolve him putting his foot into his mouth. "You've got bodyguards, right? I mean, other than her, she looks more like an attendant or somethin'." Rnama nodded, stroking his chin. "I'd figure you've got two or somethin' around you at all times. That's my guess."

Tsunande narrowed her eyes a fraction of a millimetre, but it didn't go unnoticed by Ranma who suddenly smirked a little. He was right after all. Ed just looked confused though. It seemed like Tsunande also held back the tiniest of nods.

"Like I said, not to be rude, but could you have them join us? I mean, we're in a foreign land and I'd feel a bit more at ease and have some peace of mind." Ranma spoke softly, putting on his little 'poor me' show, it worked great on guys when he was a girl, so maybe he'd be able to use it in reverse.

Tsunande just gave off a small shrug and then nodded again. "There doesn't seem to be any harm in it." She lifted her hand and waved a little and then it happened.

Two of the objects in the room disappeared into a puff of smoke and in their places were two of those masked and cloaked Ninja. Those were the two proper Ki signatures and Ranma let out a sudden breath of relief. He was right, completely right and that meant the third one could be a spy, or worse. He felt the Ki signature fluctuate ever so slightly, as if it was tensed to be used and yet nothing happened. Ed's sudden 'What the hell?' was promptly ignored so Ranma could cover the next moment smoothly.

"Ninja, obviously. Alright then, might as well start off the introductions since I seem to be in a talkative mood." Ranma grinned a little.

"You just like the sound of your own voice." Ed quipped.

"I'm told it is rather manly." Ranma said rather demurely, it sounding totally the opposite of manly, then he smirked. "Well, as I was saying..." he trailed off and turned his back to the door, looking straight at Tsunande and Shizune. "Sorry about sounding rude, I just don't like people hiding and listening in on my conversations. It usually leads to misunderstandings and ends up with me being beaten by girls I know." he shuddered a moment before going on. "The name is Ranma Saotome, Heir to the Saotome-Style of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

With that said, he blurred backwards, his elbow pushing backwards violently as he slammed it into a potted plant. Like he suspected, the plant by the door disappeared into a puff of smoke, turning into a ninja as it doubled over in pain from the elbow he gave him. The looks of susprise coming from Shizune and Tunande were enough to convince him to add the second part of his attack "Sorry about this." he said absently and gripped his fists together with a turn as he slammed them both down onto the ninja's spine, knocking him to the floor.

"Sound Ninja." one of the ANBU hissed, "Keep him pinned." he hissed as he stepped forward, pulling a blade from somewhere in his cloak as he stepped forward.

"Don't worry, I've got this." Ed said suddenly, also stepping forward. "The name is Edward Elric." he spoke as he took a few confident steps forward, calpping his hands together loudly. "State Alchemist, codenamed, FullMetal." he said with a shrug and pushed his hands onto the ground.

The white and blue lightshow from his alchemy was enough to surprise even Ranma which caused the golden haired boy to grin as his Alchemy did it's work. The floor shifted from where his hands were to rise up and around the supposed Sound Ninja, wrapping above the Ninja on the ground, pushing him up until he was surrounded by the same material that made out the floor, leaving a small indent from the required materials he had used. It was as if the man was now a cement doll with only enough space left to allow the man to breathe, arms forced away from their side and legs parted as well.

With that done, he stood and shrugged, "Call me Ed."

Ranma whistled when the work was done, rather quickly at that. Tsunande had lifted an eyebrow and Shizune was trying to keep a calm face, the second ANBU had to ask though. "What kind of Ninjutsu is that?"

"Ninjutsu? What's that?" Ed asked, blinking a few times. "That was just Alchemy. It's an advanced science, anyone can do it with enough knowledge." He continued on with a shrug. "Though, I'm supposedly called a genius since I was the youngest person to ever achieve my ranking." He had tried to not let that get to his head because the only reason he was a dog of the military was for research purposes.

"Well then." Tsunande said, softly, looking at the fallen Sound Ninja and then back to the ANBU, "Take him to Anko, tell her to have some fun. I do believe we can trust these two. Can't we?" she directed the last part to the two in question while the two said ANBU picked up the foreign Ninja, floor wrapping and all.

Edward simply nodded and then realized that might not just be enough. "I swear on my remaining two limbs that'll I'll bring no harm to you and yours while under full use of my own faculties." Tsunande tilted her head at that and Ed shrugged, pulling back his sleeve to show off his metal arm a bit more obviously.

"That must've hurt." Ranma said with a shake of his head.

"You have no idea..." Ed mumured softly. "Connecting the nerves is the worst part everytime I need to get repairs. Since I don't know when I'm going to see Winry again, I'm glad I've gotten these reinforced. By the way, your turn." He grinned a little at Ranma.

"Huh? Oh yeah. Right. Hm." Ranma paused and nodded. "I swear on my Honor as a Martial Artist and on all hopes of ever being cured of my curse. Speaking of which, er...is there somewhere I can get changed? I really shouldn't be wandering around in my pajamas."

Tsunande blinked and laughed, looking over the young man. If only he was older or if she was suddenly at least thirty years younger...mmm..."Oh. Oh! Yes, just pull the curtain back over there." She said as she pointed next to the bed with a sink next to it.

"Thanks." Ranma said softly as he moved over the bed, pulling out his pack from now where and setting it on the floor before pulling the curtain, as he did, he caught the look from Tsunade at the sudden appearance of his things. "Hidden Weapons Technique. Great for useful things." he said with a shrug stripping off his shirt, ignoring the soft gasp from Shizune which was probably from all the old scars from the Neko-ken, and went over to the sink. Turning on the hot water and changing out of his white shirt and pajama pants, getting his usual black silk pants on and checking the temperature of the water to make sure it was hot. Instead of was ice cold. "Gah!" a rather female cry was heard.

Naturally, Ranma had forgotten to actually explain his curse, and the sudden sound of a female voice where a male one should have been was enough to cause concern coming from all those nearest and Ed was the first to react, pulling the curtain back to reveal a red-head that was shorter than he was, then he noticed the second part and that she was completely topless. He blushed a deep red and took a step back, hand going to his eyes so as to not see the rather exotic looking female before him.

"What the hell? Who are you and what did you do to Ranma?" Ed asked, Shizune going on the defensive and pulling out a kunai to throw, Tsunande standing from her chair and looking oddly at the girl, noticing the multitude of aged scars on her body that were the exact same position as they were on the boy who just slipped behind the curtain.

"I am Ranma you idiot. I told you I was cursed, now do you believe me?" Girl-type Ranma swore sulpherously, wrapping her arm around her breasts once she realized she was topless and pulled the curtain back. "I knew I was going to get cold water, why the hell didn't I wait to have a shirt on? Stupid so stupid." she muttered and grabbed her favorite red-shirt. "You can put that damn weapon away Shizune, I'm not going to do anything." she mumbled and pushed herself back out from behind the curtain, making her pack disappear where it came from. She eyed Shizune who still looked warily at Ranma. "I told you I was going to get splashed. It seems your hot water doesn't work right now."

Shizune frowned and did recall the conversation. Ed blinked and frowned as well, remembering it as well. "I didn't think you were serious." They both said.

"I'm used to people calling me a pervert or a freak once they find out, actually." Ranma rolled her eyes and looked at Tsunande while she started to recite the usual reply. "Pops and I were on a training trip, we ended up in the Bayankala Mountain Range in the Qinghai Province of China. We came across a dangerous training ground called Jusenkyo, the Pools of Sorrow." Her voice had gone monotone as she recited the event as if it was a common as day explination. "Within Jusenkyo, there are many springs, each having their own Death Curse, when you fall in one you become that aspect of the spring, very tragic stories." She halfheartedly snorted at that. "Pops fell into Spring of Drowned Panda, he surprised me when he jumped out as a Panda and knocked me into Spring of Drowned Girl." She shrugged at that. "If someone lands in an unclaimed pool, they will drown." she narrowed her eyes. "There's also no known cure, though I haven't given up on that."

"Why didn't you just go find the Spring of Drowned Male?" Ed asked softly, wondering what it'd be like and shuddered at the thought of having to be a girl half the time.

"We tried at first, never could find it. Honestly, I'm glad now that I haven't." Ranma shivered at the though, having made the connection after Pantyhose Taro showed up once again a couple weeks after the last wedding attempt.

"What do you mean?" Shizune asked, looking a bit perplexed, this was beyond her medical expertise, for sure.

"The curses mix and merge. If I jumped into that spring I'd turn into half a man, half a girl." Ranma shivered at that though. At least this way he was a full sex, not half a one.

"How.." Tsunande was about to ask and Ranma answered before she got any more words out with: "It's a complete change. I'm fully female. I know more about a woman's body than any man should ever know." She grimaced slightly at that. "I'm actually due for...you know...in the next few days."

"For what?" Ed asked, suddenly. Sure he knew the human body inside out, but he still didn't pay attention to girls all that often, well, not much outisde of that automail geek of a neighbour he had.

"For something that's not polite to talk about in company of men." Tsunade added simply, looking at the boy turned girl with sympathy.

"I'm a guy, dammit." Ranma growled out.

"Well, as entertaining as this is." Tsunande chuckled lowly. "My name is Tsunade, I'm the Hokage of this village. Shizune here is my apprentice, of sorts, though she's graduated beyond that point. I welcome you to Konoha." she paused for a moment, thinking it over. "Since you have no place to stay you can use the brat's place until you find a way out of your situation and home, or until he gets back."

"Tsunade-Sama, do you really think that's a good idea? I mean, this is Naruto's place we're talking about." Shizune said as she made her way to the door.

"Well, there's no where else, and I don't think any of the clans want to take on any charity cases." The older woman said with a shrug and looked at the two. "This is a village of Ninja, so if you want some money to buy things, you're going to have to work for it." she eyed them speculatively. "Maybe we can place you two with one of the teams after you go through an evaluation of some sorts. Protect the village and we protect you kind of thing. Sound good?"

Ed and Ranma looked at each other. They both honestly prefered to work alone, but sometimes a group was better for their survival and they figured they'd need to help each other to get out of this alive. Who knew how or when they'd be able to get to their respective homes. They both nodded at each other and looked back to Tsunade.

"Sounds good to me." They both said, smirking a little.

"Great." Tsunade grinned. "Now lemme look at those wounds of yours Ed and I'll send you on your way. Shizune, go summon Shikamaru, he needs something to do so he won't get bored."

* * *

It didn't take much longer, Tsunade went over and healed the minor wounds with medical jutsu, Ranma watching carefully at the technique she used, wondering if she could do the same thing and tried to not stare at the bare mechanical arm and leg Edward was showing. When Tsunade asked about it, Ed just replied with a soft 'It was a mistake.' and nothing more was said. Even now, after all these years, it was still painful to think about the failed transmutation. Hopefully while he was stuck here, Al would be okay.

Tsunade also asked to look at Ranma's old scars and she shrugged it off, they were old and weren't going away anytime soon, she'd had them since he was around six years old after all. They also made a small talk about Ranma's oncoming 'problem' and Ranma was sure she had the proper supplies, even some soap to make sure she stayed 'locked' as she put it. Sure, she'd spend at least a week like this, but she had gotten used to it, accepted the entire thing as just whom she was now. While Ed was making sure not to pay attention, he used part of his red jacket to make himself another pair of gloves, giving the others a show of his Alchemy once more.

Five minutes later, Shikamaru Nara showed up, looking bored and tired as usual, standing attention once he caught sight of his Hokage. Introductions were regiven, causing Ranma to snicker slightly, but cut it off once she realized she should be good. Tsunade and Ed made sure to point out that Ranma was really in fact a guy. All in all, it was a strange introduction to the recent Chuunin. A moment later, they were off with Shikamaru leading the two, having also given Tsunade a message from Sakura that she had finished the next stage of her training.

Soon enough they were walking the streets and on the way to Naruto's home, Ranma's stomach started to growl. "Sorry." she said sheepishly.

"It's fine." Shikamaru mumbled, looking down the street, "I was actually going to get Yakiniku with my team. You might as well come with me, I can pay, this time." he said looking sideways at the pair. "Ignore everything Ino says and don't call Choji fat." He smirked a little.

"Ahh, he has a problem with that, hu-uh?" Ranma asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe." Shikamaru nodded. "Though, you can get away with it once, the second time he just loses it. The Akimichi men are all 'big-bodied'." he continued dryly. "He's also my best friend." he added with a shrug. "Asuma-sensei is trying to quit smoking again, so he might be irritable."

They turned down another road, taking their time as Shikamaru was wont to do and arrived at their destination without much in the way of delay, meandering into the resturant, they found Shikamaru's team already waiting for him.

"Hey, Shikamaru, you get a girlfriend?" the blonde girl asked, almost impishly, Ed and Ranma pegged her as Ino, but Ranma's eyebrow twitched at that.

"How troublesome..." Shikamaru muttered and slid into his usual spot. "Push over everyone and let them sit. I'm getting them some food. Choji, don't take any of it." He grinned a little at his large friend.

"I always have the last piece." the larger teen declared haughtily.

"Psh. Not while I'm around." Ranma grinned a little. "I've gotta fight my old man for breakfast every morning, I ain't about to lose to anybody." she paused and looked at Shikamaru, "I probably eat more than Choji does actually." she said with a stretch and sat down beside whom she figured was Asuma.

"Eat more than him? And keep that figure?" Ino asked, bewildered. "How the hell is something like that possible and how do I do it?" she almost pleaded that part out.

"I train a lot. Use a lot of energy, eat a lot to get it back." Ranma replied with a faint shrug while pulling her pigtail over her shoulder and unbraiding it. She'd been doing it more often while she was a girl because Kasumi and Akane once agreed it looked cute.

"I also eat a bit more than the average person does, though, that's because of an _accident_." Ed shrugged, putting a slight emphasis on the last word, it was something he didn't like talking about after all. "The name is Edward Elric, just call me Ed."

"Oh yeah, Ranma Saotome." Ranma chirped.

Introductions were swift and over with as the first bit of meat finished while Shikamaru ordered an extra couple of rounds, everyone getting along readily and soon there was small talk. "So you two were the cause of that disturbance this morning, huh?" Asuma asked after the third round had finished and a few more had been ordered. "I thought it was two teenaged boys that were out there." He looked down at Ranma and arched an eyebrow at her.

"Oh, that was us." Ed said, skewering a piece of meat, smirking over at Ranma who just looked at him blandly for a moment. "She's got a curse, she's really a guy."

"With a chest that huge, I'd have to call that a lie." Ino mumbled causing Ranma to splutter a little.

"Don't bring my chest into this." Girl-Type Ranma glared. He went to the explination again, this was going to be a long day if she'd have to keep this up. Adding in at the end, "Yes, it's a full change, including things only females deal with...and I really should just print up a bloody pamphlet and be done with it so I can just hand them out." she grumped, focusing her eyes on Ino as she was about to ask for a glass of hot water. "Don't even think about it, I don't want to get the seat wet and I'd rather get this week over with as fast as possible." She didn't add in that part of the hormones stayed with her when she was back as a guy, which is why she had the soap actually on her, it was nice to be prepared.

"We were both holding back quite a lot this morning too." Ed added after a moment of thought, draining his own water dry. Though he hated to admit it, he'd never be able to beat Ranma in a hand-to-hand fight, but the training he'd get out of it? He might even be able to beat Al a second time, and this time without cheating.

"Hey, yeah, you never did any of that Alchemy stuff. Why is that?" Ranma asked with a couple of blinks.

"Well, against someone of your speed, it'd leave me wide open, the only other option, I'd prefer not to ever use again if I can help it." Ed shuddered as the memory of what Scar did to him and Al in that alleyway, repressing it as fast as he could.

"You'll have to explain that one to me." Ranma said, suddenly interested.

"Alright, fine." Ed muttered, "There's the Law of Conservation of Mass and the Law of Providence are the main rules of Alchemy, along with three seperate stages."

"Oh, I know that first one." Ranma said suddenly. "Energy cannot be made and destroyed, only altered, or something, right?"

"Heh, along those lines, yes." Ed pulled out a small slip of paper with a small array drawn into it. "This is a very simple Alchemy symbol, used just for an example. I can use this to transmute something small into something else." he put the circle back into his pocket and skewered another piece of meat. "Since my accident, I don't actually need to use the cirlce, my body acts as one. Watch." With that Ed cleaned off his small plate and then clapped his hands together, a spark of blue and white energy coming forth as the small ceramic plate was transmuted into a small ceramic folded crane. "The same size, density, weight as the plate. Equivilent trade is the rule." He handed it over so that others could stare at it before he took it back and broke it with his right hand, much to the surprise of everyone. "Anything that is broken can be fixed too." He repeated the same motion and all the shards of the broken crane was transmuted back to the simple ceramic plate.

"Anyway, the three stages of Alchemy are Comprehension, then Decomposition and finally Reconstruction." Ed started to explain, giving small other examples as they eat. It was about an hour later that they concluded their conversation. Ino had been worried about if all Al had said was supposed to be a secret or not, but he shrugged it off as a science available to all. Advanced Science to be sure, but still science.

It didn't take long after that for Shikamaru to show them the way to Naruto's place and he unlocked it with a key given to him from Tsunade-Sama. Honestly, the place was less of a mess than the sometimes girl thought it would be, about the amount that the recent Chuunin thought it would be, and beyond a mess to the short Alchemist. They gave it a look around and decided to unlock and open the other door that lead to the balcony to let the stale smell out.

As soon as a little part of the room was cleaned out, Shikamaru nodded to himself and started to speak. "After you get yourselves situated, someone will be by to take you two the testing areas for your evaluation. Just some practice dummies no doubt." he shrugged and let out a yawn. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get ready for the next Chuunin Exam. How troublesome." he mumbled the last couple of words as he went out the door to the Balcony and jumped off to the next roof with practiced ease.

Ed whistled a little bit as he saw the distance Shikamaru had jumped and Ranma just shrugged it off as if it was nothing which Ed also saw. "I think you're more at home here than I could ever be," he snorted as he looked around all the room again.

"Nah, I'm just used to shit being shoved my way." Ranma said as she rolled her shoulders in another shrug. "To many stupid things've happened to me the last few years, isn't even funny." she was starting to get relaxed around Ed, which was somewhat enjoyable. Here was a guy that wasn't actually out to kill him.

"I can understand that." Ed nodded and continued to help Ranma clean up, getting the pile of dishes cleaned with a clap of his hand, making all the old stains on the dishes disappear into a rather small and ornamental suit of armor. "I love being able to do dishes like that."

"Sure looks useful. I bet Kasumi would love something like that." Ranma giggled at the though. It'd cut down on the time spent cleaning that's for sure. "Wait, that was all like bits of food right? What's that make the statue?"

"Mainly Carbon." Ed nodded, "Little bits of other things here and there, but it's pretty durable."

"Wasted food into a sellable statue. Cool." Ranma snorted and shook her head as she decided to put away the dishes that Ed had just cleaned, it didn't take long for her as she started to move around the house as a blur, Ed standing back to not get in the way, he lifted an eyebrow in question as she finished.

"Everything is training. Pops drilled it into my head, it's one of the smarter things he came up with." Ranma said as she closed the last cupboard.

"My Sensei might get along with him then." Ed said with a shudder.

"Who knows. Pops is pretty stupid sometimes though. He's made up for most everything, but he knows he can't take some mistakes back." Ranma's voice had gone cool at that and Ed nodded in understanding about the mistakes part. "Well, we've got an hour or so to kill." Ranma said with a shrug, making sure to pour some hot water on herself to turn back into a guy.

Ed watched in fascination as the change took over Ranma, it was almost intantaneous and he could barely keep track with his eyes. One second there was a short, stacked, red-head and the next there was a tall muscular man with black hair in her place. The only thing that didn't really change was the blue of Ranma's eyes. All in all, a creepy thing to the Alchemist. "What do you think we should do?" He asked, trying to sound nonchalant after watching something that was a blatant disregard to his beliefs.

"I think we should get to know each other a bit better. Who knows how long we'll be stuck here. Or how long we'll be stuck with each other if we manage to find another portal." Ranma said, cocking his head to his side as he re-did his pig-tail. "I'm sure as hell not jumping in one alone without any knowledge and you're a hell of a lot smarter than I am."

Ed smirked at the cimpliment and for the next hour and some they started to trade stories and their experiences. Ranma left out details like the Neko-Ken, he'd be telling that one at the training ground while Ed left out how he got his Auto-Mail. Both were very touchy subjects to the teens, but as they opened up to each other, they figured they would tell their respective stories in full detail soon enough.

* * *

**Notes From the Author**: Yeah, I know, I started with Naruto. I should hang my head in shame. :P

Well, there we have it. The reason I haven't updated TKR lately. I'll be working on that tomorrow though and an update should be coming shortly. Not sure how shortly, but shortly nontheless.

This story will have longer updates than the other as the other is being planned while I'm pulling this one completely out of leftfield with a coathanger on a tenfoot pole. I'll try to update faster, but I get distracted very easily by reading other fics on here, so much so that I neglect my own. I'm a horrible, horrible person and I'll try to do better for the bunch of people that like my stuff.

Also, as read, this is taking place during the time-skip. I'll be dealing with the other Chuunin exams and we'll see what happens from there. As everyone knows, the Rookie 9 all become Chuunin with Neji becoming Jounin, that may take place, it may not. I'm not even sure if I'll even get that far before Ed and Ranma get the hell out.

And, yes, I tend to be dialogue heavy. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I'll let the people decide however if I should cut back on that or not. I personally like character driven stories, but hey, I also like my violence here and there.

Finally, no, this is NOT going to be a pairing fic between Ed and Ranma. That's just...ick. Ed might start to like a new girl, he might remain fixated slightly on Winry, who knows? Ranma's going to get a nice shock when I get to the second or third 'verse. I'll forewarn now and it'll be a trip to Mahou Sensei Negima, it should be obvious what kind of shock it might lead to with one of the characters, but I'm hoping for totally random speculation. I makes my day when I read crazy theories.

Hope March starts out good for everyone. As with every update I post, I hope you enjoy this, even if it's not a popular kind of fic, what with there only being three others in this area.


	2. Evaluations with New People

Alright, by 'Rated M', I totally meant 'Rated T'.

Also since I forgot to mention last time. Places, Special Attacks and Thoughts are in _Italics_. All signs, be they of places or of Panda variety are in** Bold**.

Here's Chapter 2

* * *

_Training Ground: Twenty-Two_

"Soooooo...What exactly was it you wanted us to do again?" Ranma drawled out, thankfully still a guy. "Just go wild on a bunch of testing dummies? That doesn't exactly seem hard." He blinked a few times as he stood next to Ed, looking down the field with his arms crossed behind his head.

"Well, not exactly that. You'll be dodging attacks from hidden displays and other things like that. This is the easy part though, it's just a simple combat testing ground." A Jounin by the name of Ebisu remarked.

"I can destroy every single one of those dummies from here," Ranma replied with a faint shrug, "and that's just my main move. I can't really use any of my real special stuff without to much destruction." he grimaced at the thought of letting loose his Hiryu Hyo Toppa in a place that wasn't completely open-ended like Jusendo was.

"Oh, this isn't the training ground for Ninjutsu, this is for Taijutsu, just checking your hand-to-hand skills." Ebisu said, pushing his sunglasses back up along his nose, closer to his face.

"I think we should move beyond just a simple stage like this and do something a bit more complex anyway." Ed finally muttered, this was an insult. He could even see the traps here and there. "I mean, seriously, this looks like it was built to be attacked by kids."

"That's because it was. It's a training ground for the Academy Students whom range from the ages six to twelve." Ebisu sighed. "Look, this is just where we start at. The faster you both get to it, the faster we move to the harder parts of the evaluation."

"Alright, fine, fine. How many do you want us to get rid of each?" Ranma sighed, idly playing with his pig-tail, looking down at the straw targets with a bored look on his eyes.

"Ranma, you will take the left half, when you're done, Edward will take the right-half." Ebisu nodded with a satisfactory grin on his lips. "You can take out the traps if you want too."

"Huh." Ranma mumbled and smirked at Ed, "I'll leave all the traps for you, they're not going to to touch me, I'm to fast for that."

"Stow it, would you? You don't have an extra near hundred kilo's weighing you down constantly." Ed growled, looking at Ranma who suddenly smirked even more viciously.

"Of course I do. Everything is training." Ranma supplied as he dropped his arms to his sides while pulling out his bracers and clasping them on with practiced ease. "Ready whenever."

Ebisu simply nodded when he pulled out a stopwatch and simply said: "Go."

That was what Ranma did, he went and he went fast. Ever since the trip to China, Genma had been forcing Ranma to try and get as fast as his girl form, of course, they found out the problem with that was that she was always faster. The more speed Male-Type gained, the more it added on to Girl-Type as well. He still wasn't as fast, but he was getting close to her old speeds, and despite being the full length away from the targets, he was down there before the traps even had been sprung and was viciously taking apart each straw dummy with precision and incipacitating attacks. Not but even ten seconds later, they were all dealt with and only a couple more seconds before Ranma was back to where he was originally.

"See, told you. Pointless." Ranma sighed bored. "I didn't even get to use any random styles." He sighed dejectedly. What was the point of all his training if he didn't actually get to use it?

"Yes, well, maybe you'll find the next stages a bit harder." Ebisu said, trying to sound nonchalant at the speed. He really didn't expect much out of these boys, but he really was starting to learn that first impressions weren't always the best. Ranma had seemed lazy at first, but apparently it stemmed from just how easy he found things like this. "Edward, you turn."

"I told you, call me Ed." the blonde grumbled and eyed Ranma who grinned back at him. "Thanks for letting me do the hard work."

"It'll keep you entertained." Ranma quipped. He knew Ed wasn't as fast as him, so this would be interesting to see.

"Hand-to-hand only, huh? Guess that means no Alchemy." Ed sighed and waited until he got the nod from Ebisu.

Instead of speeding past all the traps, Ed simply dismantled every single one he came across, methodically and quickly. Sure he couldn't do the entire thing within fifteen seconds, but he took care of the ones that would be dangerous and nothing was in his path when he took care of the straw dummies. Whereas Ranma had gone for incipacitation, Ed went for killing blows and the field was strewn with straw bodyparts soon enough. All in all, it did take less than a minute and despite Ed's metal limbs, he seemed pretty flexible and good jump quite high for someone relying on just standard martial-arts.

"Well, that's not so bad, wasn't it?" Ebisu remarked, taking down the time, and going over everyhting right quick. "Ranma, you went for non-lethal attacks. Edward, you went for lethal. Why the difference?"

Ed and Ranma looked at each other and then looked at Ebisu. Their difference in experiences was the main deciding factor in this, and Ranma motioned for Ed to go first, wanting to hear his reasoning before giving his own. Ed paused a moment to gather his thoughts before going on.

"I've been in life or death situations since I've been Ten years old." Ed said simply, "And I told you to call me Ed. It's them or me...and I prefer to be living over dead. I do what needs to be done to survive. When you're in a country that's run by the Military and people are trying to kill you for fame, you buck up real quick."

Ebisu canted one of his eyebrows, nodding at that. His was a life of war and he took that in stride, though, starting at that age? That was a bit much to the specialty Jounin. "And you Ranma?"

The pig-tailed teen tapped his fingers to his jaw. "I'm good enough to do it that way. I'm a Martial Artist and it's my duty to protect the weak, not kill my opponents. However, if it comes down to it, I can kill someone to protect another. I've done it before, I'll do it again if I need to. I just don't like it." He looked away, despite everything, he was still ashamed that he had killed Saffron. "Besides, can't get information out of a corpse."

Ebisu nodded at that. "Both valid reasons, and thankfully we're now in a time of peace. If you had both shown up just a few months prior, Edward would be the better choice to send out into the field. It's kill or be killed with most Ninja and you're both old enough to not be coddled like most of the Academy graduates, since they're usually Twelve."

"You send kids out into a field at twelve?" Ranma blinked, clenching his fists.

"Only on small missions. Picking weeds, chasing down animals, things like that. They're also accompined on all missions by a Jounin-sensei, and not a specialty one like I. Combat missions require a class of B and no Genin are sent on those." '_Unless something like that Land of the Mist bit happens._' Ebisu added mentally after he finished speaking.

"You'll have to explain that one." Ed said after a moment. He was used to military terms, but it was best to get used to the foreign ones as well.

"They're ranked from D to A and finally S-class missions. D ranked missions are the easiest and smallest paying. Paint some fences, walk some dogs, to get used to working as a team, those sorts of things." Ebisu nodded, beckoning the two of them to follow as he started towards the next stage of their training. "C ranked missions are usually escort missions. From here to another town to watch a caravan. There might be some danger in bandits, but usually it's cut and dry."

"I personally don't like the sound of 'usually'." Ranma snorted.

"Yes, well, sometimes clients lie because they can't afford it. It's really only happened a few times." Ebisu shrugged. "B ranked missions can also be escort missions and things like that, but with more danger envolved. Bandits aren't really anything to worry about, but enemy Ninja can make a situation turn worse. Those are usually taken by Chuunins, though there's been known to have an advanced Genin take part."

"I can get that." Ed added, "I'd say most of my life has been a B mission then." he finished with a snort.

"Just as well, A ranked are usually missions that are hunting down Ninja, or infiltration missions of some sort. Dangerous stuff, usually at risk with your life. Jounin's take these missions." Ebisu added quietly, taking a turn past small fenced off area and heading towards a large building.

"Okay, so maybe it's more like A rank then." Ed shook his head ruefully, following behind.

"FInally, S-Rank missions are usually taken by only the strongest Jounin or the Hokage themselves. They're usually involving S-Class criminals that can kill with just the flick of a finger or the blink of an eye." Ebisu stopped in front of the building and opened the door with a key for Ed and Ranma. "They are also the highest paying of all missions. Though, not many of those usually come around, thankfully."

"Been in a couple of those myself actually." Ranma said. "I suppose Saffron and Herb would count." he shuddered at the thought of those two fights. At the question that came about, he answered before it could come. "Herb was a Half-Dragon. He could fly and throw around huge balls of energy like it was nothing. Saffron was self-proclaimed Phoenix God-King. He's the one I killed. Could regenerate limbs like nothing too. Hell, he tore off one of his wings and it turned into a blazing inferno as he threw it at me. Yeah, he could fly too." He shook his head, remembering how Akane almost died in that fight. He still wasn't sure that she hadn't after that. "Oh yeah. Good times." he said sarcastically as he shook his head.

"I wonder if some of the Homonculi I've fought would count. I'm sure Fuhrer, King Bradley would count really count as an S-Class criminal. That man scares me." Ed shuddered slightly. "Well, most of them would be considered S-class because they're 'immortal'." he mused slightly, following Ebisu inside of the building. "So, where are we?"

"This would be the usual Ninjutsu training area." Ebisu nodded, looking towards the several people within the room. "These people around here are Barrier Experts and can keep your attacks contained, we also have some recording equipment to guage the power of your abilities."

"Ah." Ranma said, rubbing his chin. "Uhm, I'm not allowed to use some of my abilities unless they're in a life or death situation. Sealed and Forbidden techniques and all that." Ranma said, almost sheepishly.

"Ranma, I think living in a land of Ninja with no way home would count as a life or death situation." Ed replied sardonically while looking at Ebisu. "Also, I'm not sure you can record one of my abilities."

"Good point." Ranma said while nodding, looking at Ebisu as well.

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Edward, you go first, please." Ebisu smiled politely, pushing his sunglasses back up and taking Ranma a step backwards so they wouldn't be within the barrier when it formed.

"Sure...and call me Ed, dammit." the blonde grumped, taking his jacket off and tossing it back to Ranma along with his gloves. "I don't want my coat and gloves being ruined this time."

Ranma nodded, taking another look at Ed's mechanical arm, he could also tell that Ebisu was staring at the limb and so were the other Ninja around. It looked strange to all of them. A limb like that shouldn't exist, it was beyond their technology. Honestly, the scars were kind of horrifying to most of them. Ranma leaned over to Ebisu and whispered. "He got that just after he turned Eleven he said, lost it when he was ten or something."

"I...I see." Ebisu nodded, shaking his head. What had that child gone through? "Oh well. Begin!"

With that, the barrier went up and targets started to flip up from the ground and also in the air. Ed clapped his hands and the blue electric current of his Alchemy pulsed through the air as he made a polearm out of the ground he was standing on, leaving a crater in it's wake. He whipped it around, decapitating targets here and there, discarding it as a huge shuriken launched itself through the air and bisecting the weapon in half. He responded with another clap as giant spikes appeared out of the ground, obliterating and impaling another couple of targets while catching another shuriken with one of the tips, stopping it from hitting him.

Suddenly a trap sprung up as a bunch of Kunai were launched at one at him and with another clap, Ed suddenly had a spiked shield in front of him, deflecting the kunai with ease, another or the repeating motion and suddenly he was using the shield as a ramp as it went through the air, still connected at the base as it made a fist and smashed into the trap. He kept up the usual Alchemy attacks, using his right fist like Major Armstrong would be, launching rocks that turned into javelins into other targets and with the final two targets, he simply touched them, blowing them to bits as he stopped at the stage of Deconstruction, there was no flash like the rest, just an explosion of material.

Ranma whistled while watching. It looked like a very useful way to fight, especially with that shield thing Ed had done. Make one up and attack from behind. "Awesome, Ed." he called out, there wasn't much in the way of collateral damage, so the Barrier Ninja hadn't worked all that hard and the barrier came down with a simple release. "Though, what was that last attack?"

Ed looked at him almost blankly for a moment as he walked back. "Just a thing I picked up a while back. It's Alchemy that doesn't end up being completed. Pretty much I can kill someone with a touch."

"Seriously?" Ebisu asked after a moment. That was a dangerous ability.

"Yeah. It's disgusting, isn't it? Pretty much implodes you from the inside." Ed sighed a little. "I suppose I should put this all back." He was about to clap his hands together as Ranma dropped his hand onto Ed's left shoulder.

"Nah. I wanna try something first before you do. I've been trying to learn something, this gives me a perfect chance to use it against some rock." Ranma grinned a little, looking at Ebisu. "Hey, can you make it hot in here? It'll be easier for me to use some of my bigger attacks." he then looked over to the Barrier users. "You guys might want to put this to maximum output, I might blow it apart otherwise." he mused that one over a moment. "Hell, I might blow it apart anyway." he rolled his shoulders with a shrug.

Ranma wandered over to the arching fist that had been made out of the shield and looked it over for a moment, his eyes almost glazing over as he continued to examine it as he nodded. Ryoga was really a good source of moves after all and with a cry of "_Bakusai Tenketsu!_" the thing cracked and exploded outwards, spraying the area with debris. "Sweet, I can do it after all. He really shouldn't've shown me that move so many friggin' times." He paused and looked back at Ebisu with a grin. "I'm ready to go whenever."

With eyes that could almost be seen from behind his sunglasses, Ebisu nodded, "Go!" He then looked back at Ed for a second. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea..." he trailed off.

"He'll be holding back I bet. He's that kind of guy." Ed said with a shrug.

Though his eyes widened at the huge ball of white-ish blue energy that Ranma seemed to grow out of his hands as he launched it into one of the training dummies turning it into a fine mist of destroyed parts with a cry of "_Moko Takabisha!"_ After that, Ranma systematically started to go through his specialty moves, going through various different styles of Martial Arts except for the ones that required equipment. Soon enough, everything had been dismantled and the terrain had been pretty much destroyed. He even surprised everyone when another kunai thrower popped up by catching and tossing away every single one of the 75 kunai in a manner of seconds with a blur of fists.

The entire time he was just carrying on with Ebisu and Ed in a relaxed conversation. He really wasn't trying and with every advanced technique everyone's eyes went more and more wide. Finally he ended the phase with a simple punch, destroying the kunai thrower as if it was made of rice paper.

"Oh my." Ebisu said after a moment. He had completely forgotten about the fire that Ranma had requested and within the pause, Ranma looked like he was waiting for something. It didn't come and the barrier came down. "Those Forbidden Techniques are quite amazing, Ranma."

"Huh?" Ranma said with a frown. "I ain't used any of those yet." he looked around the destroyed terrain within the building and he mumbled, "Oops, forgot about that."

"Don't worry, I'll fix it." Ed said, clapping his hands while concentrating. Everything that actually had been part of the actual ground had been restored, all the obliterated targets would require a bit of a softer touch. "Wait, none of those were your forbidden stuff?"

"Nah. And I didn't have enough heat to throw my power moves." Ranma said with a nonchalant roll of his shoulders. "That's just basic stuff."

"Breaking rock with a finger and throwing around Chakra like that is basic?" Ebisu wondered aloud.

"Chakra? Why would I throw my Chakra gates around? That's just Ki. Y'know, life energy." Ranma said simply.

"Yes, Chakra." Ebisu nodded. "Not many people can do that."

"Er, where I'm from, it's called Ki. There's eight points in your body called the Chakra points though." Ranma said with a frown. "The terminology might just be different though. So, you want to see my big moves or not? There's nothing really around to use the Senkens on."

"I suppose. Perhaps you'd better explain them first if those weren't used yet." Ebisu said softly, looking at the Barrier Ninja, some of them were a bit tired out by all the explosions and Ranma's Ki/Chakra blasts.

"Well, the first one, I can create a tornado." He said, ignoring the stunned looks. "Usually that's enough to deal with the idiots that attack me, but I can also use it myself to throw modified ones. I can throw them both Horizontally and Vertically." he paused at that one. "There's a couple more where I infuse them with even more cold. I can blow up a mountain with my most powerful version, only been able to do it once though."

"...A mountain?" Ebisu deadpanned.

"Oh yeah. I could probably dismantle this entire village in less than five minutes, leave it as a crater I suppose." Ranma said absently. "There's also one ability I just can't show you at all." Ranma said with a nod. "It's way to dangerous."

"We might as well put it on the file just so we know about it and how to avoid it's use then." Ebisu said softly.

"Right, I was gonna bring it up ealier with you, Ed, but I figured it'd be best." Ranma said softly, his entire body wracked with a shudder of memory. "It's one of four things Pops regrets, but he says it's one of only two things he wishes he could ever take back on the training trip." The memories from back then were still cloudy and unpleasant, even after all of these years. "Anyway. Back when I was 6 or so, Pops found this training manual. It contained the 'Ultimate Martial Arts' technique and such. Unbelievably powerful, completely unbeatable. All those fun things like that." Ranma snorted.

"So, what was the bad point?" Ed asked, interested.

"Oh, there was more than just one bad point. Y'see, it could only be taught to kids that were impressionable, it wouldn't work on older people. Pops would've tried it with me otherwise." Ranma snorted at that. Training really was everything. "Anyway. Y'find or dig a big enough pit or something of the like and find a bunch o' c-c-c-cats." he shuddered in revulsion at saying the word. "Ya toss 'em all in and let them starve for a few days. Then when they're good an' hungry, you wrap up the one learning in fish."

They could see where this was going but didn't say anything.

Ranma went on. "Then, y'throw 'im in." he shrugged slightly. "If they don't learn the technique after eight hours, you take 'em out, try a different fish and throw 'em back in."

"A brutal training technique, to be sure." Ebisu nodded slightly.

"Oh yeah. Pops finally finished reading the training manual, he had skipped the last page, of course, it was only after I learned the stupid thing. It really was the ultimate technique and all." Ranma said with a shrug.

"And the final downside?" Ed asked quietly, sure him and Al had lost Mom, but it was their own idea to try and bring her back and it was their fault they lost their real bodies, but that was also when they were ten, they knew what they were doing, partially. Ranma had been six and his own Father forced him into it. "Also, no offence, but your Father is really an idiot."

"Told ya so." Ranma half grinned. "Anyway, yeah. The Neko-Ken really did end up working. However now I'm deathly afraid of those furred hellspawn and if I'm around them long enough, I go c-c-cat..." he trailed off, shuddering a little. "I nearly killed Pops when I first learned it...I guess some old lady got me out of it, but ever since then...when I enter it, I don't know what I'm doing and I just react. No memory of what goes on. Stupid berzerker state. Yeah, I can shred things from a difference. Pretty much rip solid stone into pieces with a swing of my hand."

"Note to self, keep cats away then." Ed said softly with another nod. "If we ever meet my brother Al, I'll have to tell him. He loves picking up strays. Was there anything else?"

"Yeah, if I do go into it, I'll try and find someone I trust. I'll shred anyone that wants to harm me. I'm apparently like a playful kitten for the most part. Uhh...switch my gender to wake me out of it or let me have a nap, that usually does it. I really don't wanna have that happen while I'm a girl for the next week." he shuddered at the thought of being in the Cat-Fist while...yeah.

"Well, we'll make sure to cross that usual beginner mission off the course you'll take then." Ebisu chuckled lowly, getting odd looks from the two of them. "Oh, it's like an initiation. Every team has to go find the pet of the Lord's wife. But you two will probably be paired off with a more experienced team."

"Yeah, if it's one of those cursed hellspawn, you can count me out." Ranma said resolutely. "So, am I going to show you the cool stuff or not?"

"You really shouldn't show off your trump card like that, y'know." Ed said with a shake of his head,

"Hey, if I can kill a Phoenix with it, what are the chances of a human, even if they're a ninja, can survive?" Ranma retorted.

"Anyway." Ebisu said, cutting in. "Next up Genjutsu." he looked at them, "I doubt you have any experience with any of that, so we'll see how you handle it. If you can't...well.." he trailed off and shrugged, leading them abck out the way they came and off to another building. It took them only a moment before they came across a woman and three younger teenagers. "Ah, Kurenai-san. These are the boys I mentioned. Meet Ranma Saotome and Edward Elric."

"Ah, Ebisu-san." Kurenai said, looking at the two older teens with narrowed red eyes for a moment. She was a rather attractive woman with almost a mane of black hair. "Good to meet you, Ranma-kun, Edward-kun."

"Please, Just Ed." the blonde said.

"Ranma for me, please. I'm not really the kind of guy to use honorifics." the raven-haired boy said.

"Sensei, what's up with these two?" One of them said, a brash looking boy with a dog sitting on his head. His eyes narrowed on Ranma. "That one smells like a girl and a cat."

"I'm a guy dammit. It's just a stupid damn curse." Ranma nearly hissed at the boy. "Besides, kids shouldn't talk that way to their betters." he snorted, looking down on them.

"Kiba, keep quiet, these two are here for an evaluation." Kurenai said, looking at one of her Genin.

"You mean they don't even have the skills of a Genin. Hah. I could take both of them on without breaking a sweat." Kiba boasted, looking up at his dog who gave off a bark of a laugh.

"K-K-Kiba-kun...you should, shouldn't talk that way about g-g-guests." the girl said. She looked like she was blind and she sure did fidget a lot.

"Agreed." said the one covered in a jacket as if he was trying to hide something from the world.

"Psh." Kiba muttered.

"Cocky little shit, aren't ya?" Ed snorted.

"Hey, I'm taller than you, brat." Kiba said absently, looking snide.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING SHORT AS A SMALL BEANSTALK, HUH?!?" Ed yelled, almost lunging at him if it wasn't for the fact that Ranma had to bodily hold him back. "LEMME GO! I'LL KILL HIM!" Ed snarled angrily enough to cause Kiba to blanch and Akamaru to whine a little.

"Ed, calm down, he didn't say anything like that." Ranma said with a roll of his eyes before looking at Kiba and narrowing his eyes. "You best shut up or I won't hold him back next time." He bapped Ed on the back of the head as he let him go.

"Ahem." Ebisu coughed into his fist. "Yes, well, Ranma, Edward..."

"...Call me Ed."

"...This is Yuhi Kurenai, the one testing your Genjutsu abilities."

"Or lack there of. Ranma snerked a little.

"To right, most likely." Ebisu laughed. "She is the Jounin Sensei for these three Genin. Hinata Hyuuga, Shino Aburame and Kiba Inuzuka." He pointed out in each turn. "Ranma and...Ed," he smiled at the younger of the two, "are here from seperate dimensions apparently. "I'd personally put Ed at a high Chuunin level." He directed his gaze to Ranma. "Ranma however seems to be holding back from his full potential and I can tell he'd be suited as a Jounin."

"Hey. I didn't want to destroy the building...or the block...or that area of town." Ranma said with a cough. "I mean, your barrier guys could barely hold back my Ki-blasts, how're they supposed to deal with tornadoes?"

"A tornado? Now I know this guy is full of shit." Kiba barked. "Prove it then." he grinned.

Ranma instantly narrowed his eyes, the cocky exterior dropped for a cold and serious one. "Is that a challenge?" He was following one of the first Tenets of Anything Goes. A practitioner much accept any challenge throw at him at anytime.

"You're damn straight it is." Kiba narrowed his eyes. "You've got no ninja training and I bet I can kick your ass."

"Kiba, now is not the time for this." Kurenai said, stopping as Ranma held up his hand.

"Sorry, I've gotta take this. It's part of my school of Martial Arts, all challenges must be taken." Ranma looked to Ebisu. "You got an open area nearby?"

"Yes, it's where we were headed." Ebisu sighed and shook his head. Children these days. "Come on you lot, let's go."

Not but five minutes later they were out at one of the more popular training areas. It had extensive work over the years and it was the perfect place for random training. Ranma sighed and looked at the sky. At least the day was warm out. It felt nice too, it was a shame he'd have to throw up a Hiryu Shoten Ha for everyone to see. "Alright, since you challenged me, you get to help me make it or are you to afraid to attack the guy without ninja training?" Ranma's stance was deceptively open and undefensive.

"I'll make you eat those words." Kiba growled, pulling Akamaru off of his head. "You stay here, I won't need help with this buffoon."

"Oh, the brat can use his brain to come up with insults. I'm still not impressed." Ranma deadpanned. "I'll even let you throw the first few punches. It's not like you'll hit me." Ranma grinned, he could already see the heat of Kiba's aura. This would be way to easy.

"I'll make you eat dirt!" Kiba yelled and charged at Ranma, throwing a large right cross which was easily avoided.

"To slow! Oh man, you wouldn't hit a rock like that." Ranma stuck his tongue out as he danced backwards, weaving and swaying around the onslaught of Kiba's attacks.

"What is he doing?" Ebisu asked, frowning. "It's like he's trying to get Kiba angry."

"He usually focuses better on his opponent that way too." Kurenai nodded, her opinion of Ranma not very high. "Are you sure this boy has the kind of skills you're saying?"

"I watched him catch and discard Seventy-Five kunai in a manner of seconds and launch a Chakra attack with just a shout. He also caused an explosion with just a poke of his finger."

Kurenai canted an eyebrow at Ebisu and shook her head for a moment. "Hinata, could you please?"

"Y-yes, Sensei." the young Hyuuga said, "_Byakugan._" as the veins in her head started to show. It really freaked Ed out and he tried to shy away from her vision, not sure if he could or not. "O-oh...!" Hinata gasped.

"What is it?" Kurenai asked softly.

"It's his Chakra system. It's coiled so tightly, like he's not even using any of it." Hinata whispered, "There's a build up that he's keeping tight rein on as well, it looks like it's going to explode and a part near his back that seems to be holding onto something."

"Anything else, Hinata?" Ebisu asked suddenly, narrowing his eyes as he watched the little fight. Ranma was goading Kiba on, dodging by just a hair's breadth here and there. There was also something about the movements that seemed to be off, yet he could quite place it.

"He's concentrating some of it into his fist. Ebisu-sensei. It looks like it's barely enough to use for a Henge." Hinata shook her head in wonderment, wondering exactly what one could do with little energy like that. "It also looks cold. His entire Chakra system is cold and getting colder."

Everyone blinked at that ecept for Shino who remained the ever stoic. It didn't take long for them to see or hear why though.

Ranma continued to take Kiba into the lazy spiral. His Soul of Ice undetected by Kiba's raging inferno, but it was proving easier and easier. "Come on, that the best you got?" _Five..._

"I swear, your ass is going down." Kiba snarled. _Four..._

"Nyah nyah. You can't hit me." _Three..._

"Shut it!" Kiba yelled, trying to swipe Ranma with a kick. _Two..._

"Poor sucker!" Ranma taunted one last time. _One..._

Át the same time as the last step was taken, Akamaru started to whine suddenly, but it was to late for Kiba to figure it out. As usual, even if his rival or opponent noticed, they always fell for it. "_HIRYU SHOTEN HA!" _Ranma yelled suddenly, throwing an uppercut that barely missed Kiba's face. The smirk on his lips fell into shock as he felt himself ripped up into the air and thrown around in the midst of a tornado.

Kiba was thrown wildly into the air, knocking him back and forth within the fury of the Dragon's Blast. The Tornado didn't last to long though as Ranma let up the Soul of Ice halfway through his uppercut. He didn't want to kill the kid and he was sure he wasn't as sturdy as Ryoga. Nevertheless, the feral teen slammed into the ground, hard, a rather painful thud grinding itself into everyone's ears while Ranma just trotted back to the others, ignoring everyopne's dropped jaws.

"So. When we gonna do this Genjutsu thing anyway?" he asked as if the past fight hadn't even happened.

"I, but...you...How?" Kurenai asked, momentarily dumfounded.

"Sorry, Chinese Amazon secret. They'd kill me if I told anyone." Ranma said. "He should be fine, I made that not a pretty small one since I wasn't sure how sturdy he was." He scratched his chin slightly. "I'd say that was just under Twenty-Five percent. for that."

"You mean...that's not the one you used to blow up a mountain?" Ed asked after a moment, scratching his chin. He somewhat understood the technique, it probably had something to do with that spiral and the uppercut. Hey, he was a scientist after all, he could figure these things out.

"Nah. I could probably only pull of something at half power with him. His aura ain't hot enough. He's calculating enough to not just get pissed." Ranma shrugged. "And I didn't want to freeze the kid, I'd've probably killed him if I went deeper. Can't have that now." He looked down at Akamaru for a moment. "You might as well go check on him. He'll be fine in a bit though if my guess is right."

The dog gave Ranma an odd look and barked slightly before trotting over to his best friend and master.

"Well, I guess I can explain part of it." Ranma said after a moment. The Soul of Ice would be useful to these people if they cold ever master it. "Here, hold on a sec." he said as he pulled out his backpack from his Ki-folded Hidden Weapons space and dropped it onto the ground, rifling through it until he pulled out a thermos and a mug. "Ed, hold onto the for me, will ya?" he uncorked the thermos and poured some steaming hot water from it into the mug before handing him the Thermos when it was sealed again. "I don't want my source of hot water to get cold." He then proceeded to show everyone the steam.

Hinata watched with fascination. She could barely see the Chakra the Ranma was using. When he launched that attack, it was only a small portion used, and she could see the 'cold' seeping out from him once again. This time though, she could feel it and suddenly there was another flash before her eyes and she watched as everyone else went wide-eyed, and cold. "You're brely using any energy for that." she muttered, barely loud enough to be heard.

"Ah, yeah, practice makes perfect, he said, turning the mug upside down, there was no water coming out. "I am the best after all." Ranma said with a grin. "Anyway, I make myself and the area around me cold with the Soul of Ice and I use it against my opponents. That should be about the best I can say with keeping my own life in my hands." Ranma said nonchalantly as she handed the mug over to Shino since he seemed to want to inspect it.

"Intriguing." he murmured, handing it over Kurenai.

"It's...solid ice. You flash froze this?" Kurenai looked at the teen who was scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"It envolves deading my emotions, becoming a mask of ice. I can do it slowly, but it's more uncomfortable to those around." he said softly.

"Fascinating." Ed said after a moment. "Using your own life energy to cool the air, it's like the opposite of that womanizer who can make sparks and explosions with his Alchemy." Ed rubbing his chin in thought. It was all just a martial arts technique too. It was something he could learn! He'd beat Al yet! "Oh right. Anyway. Genjutsu, right? What exactly is that again?"

"Illusions that effect the mind, would be the simple way to put it." Kurenai said, handing the mug back to Ranma who put it down onto the ground so it wouldn't melt on him.

"That don't sound to bad." Ranma said with a shrug.

"Well, they can go from causing pleasure, to pain to outright killing you." Kurenai continued calmly. "Since you have no clue how to use Ninjutsu and seals, it's pretty much a guarentee you don't know how to use or counter Genjutsu." She was momentarily interrupted by a groan of pain coming from Kiba but she went on. "I'll be using minor genjutsu to see how you deal with them, and if you can, onto more advanced ones."

"Cool, though, I wanna see those Hand Seals first, that okay?" Ranma blinked a couple of times as she went through them with practiced ease, at the last, he frowned. "One more time, will ya?" Kurenai did, causing him to frown some more.

"What is it, Ranma?" Ebisu asked.

"Those are the Twelve Chinese Zodiac. I learned those when I was a kid. You mean I can use Ninjutsu and stuff just by using those?" Ranma frowned again, looking at Ed whom just shrugged. He'd personally never heard of it. "Well, from where I'm from, each year has a different animal of the Zodiac." He made a symbol for the Rat. "This one is Rat and is supposed to happen in 1984 where I'm from, which is in a couple of years." He ripped through them mechanically, calling out each as he did.

"Let me try." Ed said, it took him a few times to get a few of them, but he was a genius after all, and not even a few mintues later, he had all of the handseals down, he just couldn't race through them as easily, though, Monkey gave him the hardest time. "It's harder with these gloves." Ed said dejectedly, it'd be even harder without them on too. Stupid Auto-Mail.

"Well, to get yourself out of a Genjutsu, or someone else you use this handseal and say 'Kai'." Kurenai proceed to show her two new students as Kiba made his way back over, giving Ranma a death glare which the teen promptly ignored.

For the next two hours, they went through the motions of Genjutsu. Ranma wasn't quite as adept at getting out of them, he was about on average like most genin's were, it was really to be expected with him, though anything that dealt with water was promptly gotten out of. Ed on the other hand, Genjutsu just didn't seem to work on him. His mind was overly analytical due to his proficiency with Alchemy and having seen The Truth. It also didn't help that he could also suddenly feel his arm and leg in every single illusion, ensuring it was completely off to begin with. All in all, it was a valid experience for the two, and Ranma was certainly inspired to add this kind of stuff to his training regime, especially if it meant ways for him to one up everyone once he got him. The old fart would have nothing on him soon enough.

After they were all said and done, waving goodbye to the team, even Kiba grudingly giving respect, they made their way back to the village proper. "Thanks for helping us, Ebisu." Ranma said. "Can I just use any of those training grounds to practice?"

"No problem." Ebisu paused and frowned ever so slightly. "I'm not sure really, I'll ask Hokage-sama, but the roof of the palce you're staying should suffice until then. It's pretty sturdy considering whom lives there."

"Yeah, that Naruto kid. Who is he anyway?" Ed butted in, snapping out of his silent reverie. "And why's he gone?"

"Ah, Jiraiya-Sama decided to take him on a three year training trip. He's just a Genin of the village." Ebisu shrugged, Ed frowned at that but didn't voice his suspicions on the matter. Soon enough they were back at Naruto's place. "I'll go see Hokage-sama now and I'll get back to you soon." With that, the training Jounin disappeared.

"I don't like this." Ranma suddenly hissed. "We're stuck in a village of people that could kill us whenever they want and there's nothing we can really do about it." He looked over at Ed. "Hold on for a second." He picked up the smaller teen and jumped up, using a couple ledges here and there to make it to the balcony.

"Damnit, Ranma, give me more warning next time." Ed cursed under his breath and shook his head when Ranma let him go. "I agree though." he added sardonically.

"You catch what Ebisu said just a moment ago too, huh?" Ranma canted an eyebrow, pulling himself up to the roof while Ed watched.

"Why would this 'Jiraiya-Sama' guy take a mere brat, for one. Three years no less. It's kind of suspicious. Ugh. I need to find out some more information." Ed sighed, leaning against the railing. "I should go snooping around to see what I can find." he shooks his head and muttered under his breath.

"Oh well." Ranma replied from the roof. "I figure it'll be best to wait until tomorrow sometime. I mean, he'll be back later today and we want to play the gracious guests. Especially considering we've only know each other for what, minutes before we met them?"

"Yeah, but you're not a ninja. The two ninja I've come across before this attacked me outright. Though, I suppose they're both okay people." Ed mumbled, thinking about Lan-Fan and Fu. "Ugh. I don't know what the hell to think."

"Then don't. Just react for now." Ranma said with a faint grunt. "Just move, sometimes you don't have the time to stop and look over the situation, just keep going and don't look back. No point in judging or regreting the past."

Ed peered out frm where he was on the Balcony, shifting himself up to look over the roof, watching Ranma stand there in a one legged pose, his other leg was at a Ninety degree angle in front of him while he started to throw small punches. He even crouched down, keeping the leg straight in front of him as he continued to throw the punches. Everything about the motions screamed 'perfection' to Ed. "How long have you been training again?"

"I never mentioned that, did I?" Ranma said without looking away, switching legs very slowly, painfully slow to Ed. "Been able to throw a solid punch since I was Two, or so I'm told. Pops took me on a Twelve year training trip once I turned Four. The Neko-Ken was at Six and 'cause of it, I don't remember anythin' from before then." He paused as he stood up, stretching a little bit more and started to do the same workout, just on his hands instead of his feet. "Well, I got minor things here and there I can remember, but other than, ain't got nothin' for memories."

Ed watched and listened with fascination. Sure they had gone over each other's stories, well, the quick notes version anyway and had decided that they'd trust each other, for now, just ebfore Ebisu came and grabbed them. "One more question." he stated, making sure to avoid the 'That was just one.' crack.

"Shoot." Ranma said as he switched to his other hand.

"Can you help me with my own Martial Arts? I don't have my brother here to spar with and I don't want to get rusty." Ed asked after a moment. "And if you want, in exchange, I could teach you some bits of Alchemy."

"That's an interesting trade." Ranma said, scratching his chin with his free hand despite being at a very odd angle while kicking in a few directions. "Sure, I'll take you up on that. Though, I'm not exactly the world's best trainer. The one person I tried to train got pissed at me because I never hit her. Stupid Tomboy didn't understand what I was trying to do." he grumbled.

"That Akane girl you mentioned before Ebisu came by?" Ed snickered slightly. "Sounds like she tries to hard and fails as a result."

"Yeah, she's got no patience whatsoever." Ranma said with a sigh and threw himself into the air, several metres no less, just with one arm and came out of the stance with a twist of his body and two spinning kicks before landing with practiced ease. "Can't cook, can't swim, has a temper with no fuse..." he trailed off and shook his head ruefully. "Yet I still like her for some reason."

"Well you spent however long with her. I guess it's 'Adapt or Die' as Sensei would sometimes say." Ed nodded and dropped back down to the balcony, leaving Ranma alone for a moment.

"Adapt or Die...Anything Goes after all." Ranma said with a sigh as he looked to the sky, suddenly depressed, but at least this time he knew why and he could finally think for himself and for once he finally understood where he feelings really fell.

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

That was more reviews than I thought I'd've been getting, I do hope I get more, they keep my heart a flutter. The above chapter is pretty much the last of the introduction crap outside of a minor bit and Team Guy and Anko showing off in the enxt one, I think. I honestly don't know, I'm writing this as I get it and posting it when I figure a good break would help. Oh, and Sakura, I suppose. I guess she is kind of important. *cough*

However, onward! Not much to say to the reviewers except the one note about my typos.

I use Wordpad and I really don't go over my own stuff, I'm sure I've capilized some weird things in here with this one and written words differently here and there. Probably Automail being one of them and I know I'm off with my numbers. I don't know if those should be capped or not. I also don't have a spell checker normally and I don't use the one up there because I didn't notice it until just now. Wow. There's my new thing learned for the day.

Anyway hope you enjoy, it's not quite as long as the first one...but I did type it up in two days instead of over the week like I did the first one. The third one probably won't be coming until the weekend due to the fact that I work Splitshifts now on Wednsday and Thursday (Suuuuuucks). Please drop a review if you've got the time.

Finally: Yay March. I can't wait until the 9th. ._.;;


	3. The Interrogation

The usual nonsense spiel applies. Techniques and THoughts in Italics, Signs and whatnot in Bold (If they ever show up)

I also don't understand the point of it, but I guess I'm supposed to say I don't own any characters that are involved unless otherwise specified. It should be common sense but maybe it's just used to pad the word count. Hm. Maybe I'm onto something there...XD

Anyway, here we go!

* * *

Over the next couple of hours, the two displaced teens were taking a small break. Edward was getting tired from his day being overly long while Ranma was just bored from only being up a little bit. They had finished cleaning up the mess that Naruto had left, and it had seemed to them that it was more through non-commital and being to busy than just standard laziness. That and the boy apparently had an unhealthy obsession with Ramen.

"At least nothing was really moldy, just half-cleaned." Ed mumbled to himself.

"I've really gotta know why the kid was living by himself and other information. I don't like it." Ranma's eyes narrowed and sighed with disgust as he recalled finding the bedroom in total disarray. After that he honestly couldn't comprehend how Kasumi kept a smile on her face.

"Probably lost his parents or something." Ed shrugged, "S'what happened to me and Al, we lived by ourselves too, though I guess we had Granny just down the way."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before." Ranma nodded slightly. "Though there was something else. People were eyeing us with relief when we got here with Shikamaru. I thought I heard thankful mutters too." It was sickening really, were people that nasty around here?

"You did? I didn't notice. I guess I was taking in the surroundings a bit much." Ed frowned slightly and smoothed out his red jacket after taking it off and putting it on the table. "It's a bit odd to me. There's no confomity to anything at all, all of these twisting roads except for those big three."

"It's easier to herd people through them like that. Makes for easier targets." Ranma said with a shrug. "Of course, I bet most Ninja can roof-hop anyway so it's moot in the end. Speaking of which. When the hell is that person coming by to ask us those silly questions?"

"It's still early evening yet for these people. Probably busy. I mean, you did give them that...what was it, Sound Ninja?" Ed remarked, looking over his right arm carefully, it was still coated in the hardened carbon.

"Oh, that one you gift wrapped? What kind of Ninja are called Sound anyway? Aren't they supposed to be quiet and stealthy and stuff?" Ranma shook his head, not realizing the irony of saying that in who's place they were currently upsurping.

"What kind of Ninja are called Leaf?" Ed retorted, deciding to leave his arm the way it was for now, it being a lot sturdier like this and he pulled up his pants leg and did the same to his left one with a clap of his hand, the limb becoming visually darker. At Ranma's lifted eyebrow Ed shrugged. "It's sturdier this way, condensed carbon makes it easier to take hits. Same weight and density, it's just harder to break is all." Ed shrugged.

"So, why not turn it into diamond then? That's one of the hardest minerals around, ain't it?" Ranma blinked at that, playing with his pig-tail, pulling it apart as he got up to splash himself with some cold water. "I guess it'd make more sense to me." Her voice noticibly higher as she walked back and flopped down into the chair she claimed as her own, watching as Ed shook his head.

"Not enough material for that. Though, maybe I could get a bucket load of coal and do it that way. Transmute it right onto the outter layer of my arms. It'll be heavier, but these are a lot lighter than I'm used to anyway." Ed blinked a few times, going through the ideas quickly in his head, there was no way he'd be able to do it to the entire arm or leg, that'd be stupid and way to heavy...but enough for a layer of it for added protection would be perfect. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Ed grinned after a moment. "Take it you wanna get the week over and done with?"

Ranma just snorted a little. "Ignoring that. Wonder who we get introduced to next."

Suddenly there was a couple of knocks at the balcony door. "Speak of the Devil." Ed grinned and got up to open the door for whomever it was. As he did, looking straight ahead he got an eyeful of a woman's chest, only contained by a flimsy material interwoven with mesh and a brownish trenchcoat. He blinked a few times as his gaze wandered up. "Can I help you?" Ed asked, politely, trying to be nice, trying to ignore the murderous voices in his head about how he must kill all those that were taller than him.

"I'm here to pick up a couple of studs." the woman replied with a grin. "I can see you're one of them, where's the other? Name's Anko, by the way." Anko stepped into Naruto's place, looking around, holding back the low whistle that she wanted to let loose at just how clean it was.

"Right here." Ranma called from her chair with a wave.

"I was told two manly studs, not one and a stacked babe." Anko said after a moment of consideration. "Unless you're hiding him somewhere."

"I'm a guy!" Ranma squacked indignantly. "I've just got a curse, dammit. Didn't that Tsunade chick leave a message when you got your present ealier today?"

"Sure sure, whatever you say." Anko said with a grin, dropping her hands into her pockets. "Gift though? Oh, you mean that nicely wrapped Sound Ninja. And it's not even close to my birthday. That was you two?"

"I subdued." Ranma said with a shrug, finally standing and rolling her shoulders.

Ed concluded, "...and I gift wrapped."

"You both know how to give girls like me the best presents." Anko purred, "I'll have to give you something in kind later." she winked and almost bust up laughing at Ed's snickering and Ranma's sudden fear that she was going to be bashed by something suddenly. "Now come on with me. I get to ask you bo...th some questions." she coughed, looking at Ranma and snickering at the aquatransexual. She had gotten the note, she did so love teasing people though.

Anko was also told by Shizune that Ranma was smoking hot as a boy too...now that she couldn't wait to see...

"Lead the way then." Ed motioned, "And can we walk like normal people? I'm a bit to heavy to go making decent impacts without leaving small craters, don't want to break someone's roof in."

"Big Baby." Ranma snorted.

"Up yours." Ed replied. "I might be a bit of a Martial Artist, but I'm not that good."

"Don't worry. I'll get you up to a level of decency soon enough. Show me that Alchemy stuff and I'll show you some useful stuff as well." Ranma rejoined. "Well, Anko wasn't it? Let's get this over with. I need to go shopping for some groceries outside of Ramen."

"I can show you this great Dango shop." Anko provided.

Ed and Ranma just stared for a moment, not saying anything that might accidentally provoke the wrath of the Interrogation Nin. See, even Ranma can learn tact!

* * *

Ed and Ranma had been seperated and Ed was sitting in a little room. He had offered to go first just to get it over and done with. He was starting to get tired after all and figured it wouldn't take to long to answer some small questions. Anko Mitarashi sat in a chair across from him, her hands on the table innocently so as to prove she wasn't about to cast Genjutsu, it was a bit of a habit to see friendly. It didn't matter that Ed was immune to most of it for some reason.

"So, we might as well start off with the basics. As much as I don't want to admit it, this is technically an interrogation." Anko spoke softly, looking to the one way mirror and flashing a wide grin. "So, once we're done with this, I'll take you both out for a drink."

"A drink does sound good to me." Ed murmured a little. "Though, I think I'll get some sleep tonight, how about tomorrow?"

"Sure thing." Anko grinned again while looking back at Ed, unaware of the loud gulp of nervousness that Ranma let out. "Alright. Name?"

"Edward Elric."

"Home?"

"Resembool in Eastern Amestris."

"Age?"

"Sixteen."

"Profession?"

"Alchemist for the Military."

Anko raised an eyebrow at that for a moment, leaning back and crossing her legs as she went on.

"Rank?"

"No clue now. I might have gotten promoted since I might be MIA or KIA. However, Major." Ed paused at that an added. "Most Alchemists are. Codenamed by the way FullMetal."

"What is Alchemy?"

"A Science. Chemistry would be a very simplified version without the Transmutation. You already have an example of what I can do."

"True enough. Your intentions with this village?"

"None. But since I'm stuck here until we can figure out a way home. I'm willing to help out."

"Why?" It was probably the second most important Anko was going to ask, even if it was the simpliest.

"Equivilent Exchange."

"Meaning?"

"Not only is it an Alchemic Law, it's a way of life for people where I'm from. Nothing can be taken or made from nothing. Something must be given in exact exchange."

"Good enough for me. Now, finally the important question, though it's really moot since you already answered." Anko shook her head a little. "Where do your loyalties lie?"

"With the people." Ed smirked right back at her.

Anko was a little shocked admittedly. "Not with the Military?"

"Back home? No, it's almost all corrupt, I guess I'm loyal to the Colonel, but he can be a jerk most of the time. Besides, that's also part of what it means to be an Alchemist, to be for the people. To help fix things, make their way of life just a little easier if we can."

"Hmm..." Anko mused for a moment. "Speaking of which, when did you enter the Military and why?"

"The Age of Twelve when I obtained my rank of Major. I'm the youngest State Alchemist ever to achieve said rank...as for why, that's a bit more personal that I'd like to talk about." Ed shifted uncomfortably in his chair and Anko eyes him almost dispassionately.

"I'm assuming it's why your steps sound different and why your codename is FullMetal then?" Anko asked softly, not wanting to push the teen over the edge. These people, despite being interrogated were guests of the Hokage after all. She couldn't go around torturing them, well, at least not in this sense.

"That would be a good part of it yes. The other part doesn't matter since my brother Al isn't here. If he ever shows up, we'll talk about it...though it's doubtful." Ed finally responded after a full minute of silence. It wasn't like he was uncomfortable talking about it now, but it was still illegal back home, or it was supposed to be...

"Alright. I'm also told that asking about your arm and such is off limits until you yourself give the go-ahead. However, the information would be much appreciated when you'd like to give it to us." Anko paused. "Hokage's orders and whatnot. She's intrigued by the two of you, each for her own reasons."

"Thanks. I think." Ed frowned a little, rubbing his jaw with his left hand. "Guess it's Ranma's turn now, huh?"

"Yep, go get her...er, him...in here." Anko snickered a little as Ed stood up, heading towards the door.

It opened for him and he walked out, passing by Ranma whom was still a girl and headed into the side room to watch Ranma's side of the questioning like the Aquatransexual had done with him.

"Alright, same drill with you Ranma." Anko said after a moment.

"Yay. Go me." The Soprano voiced girl twirled her finger as she plopped down rather unladylike into her chair.

"Heh. I'm really starting to like you more and more. Alright then. Name?"

"Ranma Saotome."

"Home?"

"Birthplace? I dunno. Guess I'm stayin' at the Tendo Dojo in Nerima, a ward in Tokyo, Japan with Pops. Mom lives over in Juuban in the Minato Ward, also Tokyo."

"Sounds like a big place." Anko mused.

"Oh yeah. I think it's the largest city on Honshu, one of the four Islands that make up Japan. Something like Eight Million plus people right now. I wasn't paying attention during the last census they gave out." Ranma coughed into her fist at that.(1)

Anko tried to avoid spluttering at the amount of people that Ranma mentioned. Sure that wasn't possible. That many people in one place? Even if the majority of them were civilians, that'd be a bit much. "G...going on." She shook her head a little. "Age?"

"Er...uh, almost Eighteen, I think."

"You're not sure about that either?" Anko frowned.

Ranma repeated the gesture, though it came off more as a cute pout on the turned girl's face. "Don't remember much before the age of six, haven't really done anything for my birthday since then either."

"Now I'm curious, why is that?"

"Pops took me on a training trip when I was like three or four. He just randomly gave me stuff at different times of the year. Once was when it was a blizzard, another time it was during the middle of a summer drought."

"And you don't remember before the age of six because?" Anko was really curious about that.

"I'll bring that up after the rest of the questions." Ranma said simply, crossing her arms and looking defiant. She could pull it off amazingly well, even if it did just puff out her chest, straining the silk fabrics she normally wore.

Anko snickered a little at that. "Right, right." she grinned even wider than before. "Sex?"

"Male." Ranma's blue eyes narrowed at that.

"Really now?" Anko's eyes were alight with mirth.

"Yes." Ranma hissed. "How would you like it if you were turned into a boy everytime you got splashed with water, huh?"

"Ooh. I think I'd have fun with that...oh yeah..." Anko trailed off, a little bit of drool sliding down the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away after a moment with a small cough. "I mean. No. Of course I'd hate it. Really." Another cough. She wasn't trying to convince anyone, really. Honest!

"Yeah. Right." Ranma shook her head. "You gonna keep daydreaming your weird sex fantasies or are you gonna keep asking questions?"

"What, not like you've never done anything." Anko snorted.

Ranma blushed at the thought. "Never have, never will, and I'm still a virgin for your information."

Anko canted an eyebrow at that. This meant she had a new toy to corrupt! Oh thank the Kami in Heaven! "Going on then. Care to explain?"

"Very Tragic Story." Ranma deadpanned, her voice going almost emotionless, was it getting colder in here? "I already told that Tsunade chick. I don't like repeating my life story everytime I meet someone. It's probably already on file including the location. Cold water activates, hot water negates."

"Then why are you female right now?" Anko asked, this time politely.

Ranma's face screwed up a little, trying to keep her emotions dead and Anko could tell it really was getting colder. "The change is complete and utter. Female hormones and cycles and all that. Do I need to elaborate on that for you?"

Anko stared at Ranma for a moment and then looked at the one-way mirror and gave off a sudden glare that implied unseemingly death if this bit of information ever got out. "We'll just strike that last part from the record and never speak of it again in front of non-females then."

"Thank you." Ranma spoke softly, the girl's voice low and relieved as the cold started to go away. "Honestly though, I freaked out the first time it happened, I thought I was dying if you would believe that. No one ever told me and I've had this for almost two years now."

Anko suddenly felt bad, she knew she'd make it up for the teen. Probably in the form of Dango or something equivilent. "Alright, back to the actual questions then. Profession?"

"High School Student." Ranma was still quiet. "Also Heir and soon to be Master of my family style of Martial Arts." Her voice started to perk up a little as she talked about the one that that was truely her life. "Actually, I think I was going to become the Grand Master next week. The ol' Letch was trying to keep it hushed up but Pops forgot to erease one of his silly Panda signs."

"Panda?"

"Curse like mine."

"Ah. Alright then." She wondered exactly what that would look like. "What kind of Martial Arts do you know?"

"To many to list unless you want me to talk about just different styles over the next half an hour by just listing them off. I'm a Master in almost all of the basic hand to hand styles, I'm proficient with most weapons as well, I just don't like to use them. Also a couple of forbidden things that I've sealed...though I suppose I'll break them out in a life or death situation. I'll need to remind myself to talk to Ryu about that. And one other." she grimaced at that last part.

"Why is that, about the weapons I mean?" Anko was intrigued about that.

"Most Weapon Users are useless once the their toys are taken away and it's easy enough to disarm most people." Ranma shrugged. "Then again, I did learn pressure points to combat most people anyway, it's easier to knock a man out with a few pokes than it is to knock his lights out."

"Really?" Anko smirked a little.

"I'm the best." Ranma stated simply, Anko blinked at that however. That wasn't just a simple boast and there was no pride behind Ranma's voice, though it might jsut be because he was currently a she. It was just presented as a simple fact. "And I never lose in the end." Just simple fact. It really was odd.

"Who taught you then?"

"Pops did over the training trip. Basic stuff like Situational Awareness, Speed training, bunch of crap like that. His training methods leave a bit to be desired I'm told." Ranma shrugged as if it was no big deal. At Anko's look, he elaborated a little. "Speed. Running away from wolves while carrying a boulder on your back with raw meat strapped to your legs. Landing. Being tossed off a cliff. Not that big of a deal. Been doing it since I was three or something. Did the wolves thing around six, I remember that." Anko instantly supressed the urge to maim, slaughter and kill Ranma's 'Pops'. Sure Academy Students started at the age of six, but they didn't go through dangerous training like that unless they were really advanced, and even then, only if Ninja were needed in a time of War. Ranma seemed to notice that Anko had gone stock still and waved her off. "Pops did all of the stuff with me except for one thing and that's cause the training manual said it was only for kids. He'd've jumped into The Pit with me if it didn't say that."

"The Pit?" Anko heared the emphesis on that word clearly.

Ranma's voice went cold again and Anko really noticed the change in temperature this time. "I said I'd tell Ed later but I might as well say it now so I don't freeze something important." Anko's eyes widened a little, she was physically making it colder in the room just like that? "Dig a pit, fill it with c-c-cats and starve them. After a week or so, take the participant and wrap them up in fish paste or food and throw them in. This is the process of which the child will learn the Neko-Ken, the ultimate martial arts technique. If the first attempt is enough, repeat the process up to one month." Ranma's spoke with a dead voice, cold and hollow. Anko could hear the sound of cracking and she saw Ranma's small hands trembling while holding onto the table, it was starting to snap off under her grip. "I was six when I was thrown in. I learned the technique after a week just after I turned six. I barely remember anything before The Pit."

It was with surprise that Anko could see her own breath coming out now. This girl really was dangerous, but she pressed on, intent on finding answers so that maybe she could help Ranma, so Anko spoke quietly now. "...And?"

"The end result is an ultimate technique, unbeatable by normal means. Funny thing with ultimate techniques, there is always a drawback. It is a Berzerker state for me. I become the cat and I will shred my enemies or those with malicious intent, however, I am told I am like a kitten to those I consider friends. I am also deathly afraid of those furred hellspawn." Ranma said at just a whisper, her hands trembling still.

_CRACK!_

Anko blinked a few times and looked at Ranma's hands, they had finally stopped trembling, but now she was holding a good chunk of the table while it was covered in frost. "Sorry." She slowly placed the chunk of table she had snapped off into the middle of the table and all remained silent for a moment allowing Ranma to slowly come out of the Soul of Ice as she looked across at Anko. Very slowly, the cold started to disappear as if it was just Air Conditioning that had been turned off. Finally Ranma started to speak again. "That was the Soul of Ice, a Martial Technique to subdue emotions and to emit cold Ki. I've taken it to the next step and can actually make things cold, it's like the opposite of a battle aura."

This interrogation was taking a bit longer than Anko thought it would be, honestly. "You'll have to explain Ki to me. Ninja here use Chakra."

"It is kind of different, I guess." Back on familiar ground, Ranma seemed to become chipper once again. Mood swings to this extreme were definitely not healthy to Anko. "Ki is a person's life force. The physical energy they produce just by living. All living beings have Ki where as something like a rock does not. It's also used for various other forms of techniques like this." Ranma reached behind her back and pulled out a strip of cloth and shoved a little Ki into it after giving her wrist a shake. "Iron Cloth Technique. If you're good enough, this is as sharp as a blade, my rival Ryouga can do this all day and just throw them around like crazy, he shoves enough Ki into them that they'll stay hard for a while too."

Anko nodded for a moment, rubbing her jaw absently as she looked at the one-way mirror for a moment before looking at Ranma for a moment. "What else can you do with your Ki?"

"Oh, all that stuff I did on that Ninjutsu training ground was all just my Ki, same with sure _Hiryu Shoten Ha_ that I threw that Kiba brat into." Ranma rolled his shoulders with a shrug. "Plus a bunch of other stuff I didn't show off I suppose. To powerful and all that."

"That would explain what Hinata meant then. It's like your Chakra is bursting at the seams." Anko mused and narrowed her eyes, not voicing her opinions about what Ranma was talking about. She finally knew full well what was going on with the girl in front of her. Ki was just one half of the equation to Chakra it seemed, the energy produced by the cells of the body and this boy was only using that for his abilities, if he started to actually use his mental energy, he'd be even more powerful.

"You mean that timid girl that looked like she was blind? She held herself like she knew how to do some decent hand to hand." Ranma mused after a moment. "I'd be willing to bet she fights with pressure points or something. Takes some skill, that. I guess we should get back to the rest of the questions, huh?"

"True. What are your intentions with this village?" Anko finally got around to asking, she really needed to go see Hokage-sama and get another Hyuuga to watch Ranma, maybe even full time.

"Pretty much what Ed had mentioned. This ain't my home, but while I'm stayin' here I'll do my best to do what I can. A Martial Artist's duty is to help those that need it." Ranma's sporano voice proclaimed loudly and happily.

"And your loyalties?" Anko finally asked.

"To my family and those that I care for, even if they don't care for me back." Ranma finally said after some thought. "Even the ones that think I'm a prize to be fought over." that was muttered under his breath though.

"Alright then, I guess we're done here then, it took a bit longer than I thought, but that's no big deal, things like that happen." Anko grinned, waving her hand towards the one-way mirror.

"Ah, actually, I have a request." Ranma suddenly asked, a bit nervously.

"And that is?"

"Ah, I know you've got those masked people watching us all the time...but, uhm, can I request that the female and the guy who likes staring at my rack to be removed? Third guy seems okay for now." Ranma asked sheepishly. "I don't like being eye-candy for people that are just supposed to watch me." she blushed a pretty shade of red too...though the important part was she knew that three ANBU were watching them.

Anko took it in stride. "Sure thing. I'll have them replaced." She grinned even more mischeviously. "In fact, I think I'll request taking one of their spots. I'm starting to like you two and once Ibiki gets back, we can have some fun." Anko's kind of fun left a lot to be desired for most people though.

At that, Ed walked in quietly, watching Ranma carefully and quietly, he looked at her oddly for a moment and then to Anko quietly before clapping his hands together almost softly. A moment later, after the electric blue energy faded, the table was looking brand new, as if Ranma hadn't snapped a good portion of it off. "Come on Ranma, let's get back to where we're staying. We still need to go buy food."

Ed, like Anko, felt horrible for Ranma. Sure, his own childhood had been hell after his Mother had died, but him and Al had put themselves through that willingly, for the most part. It was their own choices, bad and good that had gotten them where they were. Ranma was dragged along however, and even then, with that Neko-Ken thing, at the age of six no less! Sure Ranma was older than him, taller as a guy to boot, but as a girl, even as powerful as she was? She looked defenceless while she was talking, alone with no support. It was evident she didn't have much of a social upbringing, on the road all the time, hell Ed at least had Winry and his neighbours and to him it looked as if Ranma didn't even know how to cry.

"Before that..." Ranma's voice was somewhat small for some reason. She really hated asking for favours and requesting things. "...can we go get some ice cream? I really could use some."

Anko smiled at the two teens and nodded. "Come on. My treat."

Not but moments later, they were back on the street, headed towards the best Ice Cream Parlour in Konoha.

* * *

Finally, Ranma and Edward found themselves back at Naruto's apartment, the sun was finally starting to set on their first day in Konoha and Ed was exausted, flopping onto the second chair in the main room while Ranma put away the food silently. Anko had left them at the door after helping with the food, even paying for it on promise that she'd be paid back eventually. It wouldn't be to bad, but it really depended on how long they'd be here. For all they knew, they'd disappear back into the darkness and be gone somewhere else, maybe even home.

Now they just needed to figure out whom was going to sleep where.

"Who gets the bed?" Ranma finally asked, flopping down in the chair she proclaimed as hers. Mainly because it was more comfy to her and she could curl up in it.

Ed thought on it for a moment. "I'd like for it to be me, at least tonight. I'm dead on my feet, though you'll probably want it from your problem that you're about to deal with."

"Hmm...we can flip for it if you want, or play Janken?" Ranma ignored that last part, she didn't really care if she got the bed or not. She was used to sleeping on whatever was nearby, be it floor, tree limb or pile of rocks. Though, admittedly, she usually didn't start sleeping as a girl, that just might be tad uncomfortable with the size of her breasts.

"Janken, Best of three?" Ed replied.

Ranma grinned slightly while she repled. "Perfect."

Ranma won the first game on the first try, the second game took a few rounds before Ed was declared the winner and the final took over ten times before Ed finally came out on top. Ranma's grin growing wilder with every game they tied. With a grumble of, "...finally." from Ed, he wandered into Naruto's room to fall asleep. Pulling off the majority of his clothes before falling onto bed, glad the kid had an actual bed to boot, as he fell into and rolled around to get comfortable. It was only then as he was about to fall asleep that he realized Ranma had let him win the bed for the night, just further pushing Ed's mind down the path that he'd have to do something nice for the girl in the next few days.

Without much of a further point in thought, Edward Elric, the FullMetal Alchemist, concluded his first day in Konoha in the Elemental Lands as he started to sleep soundly, the only noise was a soft snore eminating from the bedroom.

Meanwhile, Ranma was staring out at the setting sun as she hefted the chair that wasn't hers with a single hand and walked it over to her chair, setting it down and placing it so she could just drape her body across both of them. They were of familiar size, large and rather spacious really which was a surprise compared to the rest of the rather spartan home.

It was then and there that she had decided to pull everything out of her _Hidden Weapons_ stash and deposited it mainly around and near the table. Her usual set of camping supplies, tent and all were easy discarded into the pile, along with several other useful traveling things. She'd need to refill the canteen too and got to stocking up her supplies. A few busy minutes later and she had everything already packed up again, ready to go at moment's notice.

At least the two gaurds she had complained about had been replaced. She didn't like being leered at by total strangers, dealing with that kind of crap from back home was bad enough. With a quick blur of speed, she replaced her clothing and decided to tie back her hair in the pigtail for while she slept. Of course, that'd be a couple hours yet. She wasn't tired and because of the conversation she had ealier, she knew she was going to have nightmares and just didn't want to deal with that for as long as she could.

So, all in all, she spent the next couple hours going over what she had learned today, going over the twelve handseals over and over and over until her hands moved in a blur. With her Amaguriken training, she wondered how many seals she could do in a second, and after the first hour, she decided to do just that. Now if only she could figure out this Chakra thing, she'd be all set.

Ranma wasn't stupid, not unless it came to social things that was, no she was actually quite the genius when it came to coming up with movies on the fly. She wouldn't admit it, but she knew that these ninja could put her down if they really wanted, they weren't on her level with hand to hand combat, but whom was? They had all of those other abilities and she knew that they had no problems killing her if things came down to it. Maybe she'd be allowed to request an instructor so she could learn this Ninjutsu stuff, maybe even the Genjutsu.

"Hah, that stuff would be perfect for dealing with all of those idiots back home. Wait'll I show them, no more people trying to kill me if this works." Ranma grinned a sly grin as she went over the handseals she watched Kurenai do, now if only she had someone to practice on...

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

A bit less than I'd hoped, but I've not been feeling well and I really should be working on my other story. Nevertheless, it's probably a bit shorter because it'd be pointless to type out minor things during an interrogation like how Anko's eyes moved and shit like that. I figured I'd expedite the process juuuuuust a little.

Now, onto the reviews (which I'd really love more of, honest!) Let's go from bottom to top this time around

**Riniko22: **I'd have to say, Naruto left the place the way it was because he was to busy to clean up before he left, that and I don't see him having much time to clean up normally as I also believe he'd hate being at home when he can be out and about the village. My interpretation is that since Naruto has people that don't hate his company anymore, he'd rather at least be around them instead of wasting time doing something like dishes. Of course, I completely forgot he could've just used some Kage Bushin, but...hey. XD. Honestly, I think I'll be keeping these two in the Elemental Lands until at least one Chuunin Exam is over so that some of the cast can advance. Also, the Genjutsu thing is a totally awesome idea, but I love dealing with the Neko-Ken. Though, I might take that into a dark turn because it'll be funny to me.

**Kamen Rider Den-O:** No, not hooking up with a Negima girl, he's a bit older than them, but that probably won't stop them much. I think they might be more interested in Ed due to his *ahem* stature. That and the beginning of the Negima bit is already planned...I'm just not sure when I'm going to get to it. Right away? Probably not. I think I'll use it to end things with a bit of a bang and just keep this story short. Well, as short as my writing seems to take which is probably at least 100k or so.

**KillerWombat: **Now that is a secret. However I do agree with you in this point in case, it's hardly healthy and Ranma will deal with it.

**fallacies: **Yes. Will he use it? Dunno. Might be a good idea, I'll keep that in reserve if you don't mind.

**Darchias: **Yes, Ranma is quite the OP character, but if you consider what he can do in the OAV's and late Manga, it's hardly surprising, and here's my take on things, and for some reason, most people compare him to Ryouga. Now to put it in perspective, Male-Type Ranma is stronger while Girl-Type is faster. In their second fight, the first real big one, Ranma's turned into a girl, catches Ryouga's stupid heavy Umbrella after batting it out of the air, manages to hold it one hand, scooping up Akane in the other AND jump a couple stories into the air. Ranma holds back on most opponents to an insange degree considering what he can do in the later end of the series. I mean, even against Saffron he didn't use forbidden techniques despite having the knowledge and inclination to do so and he still ended up killing the God-King of Phoenix Mountain.

Personally, I believe in a hand-to-hand fight, just straight combat, no special powers, Ranma will always win. He knows the in and outs of most styles, has mastered a good majority of them and the training for some of the stupid and silly ones proves he can respond and deal with them rather easily. So, yeah, Ranma is overpowered and he's likely to get stronger once he figures out that Ki + ??? = Chakra.

**Everyone else: **Thank you for your reviews and I hope you continue to enjoy the train-wreck.

One final note would be that I'm sorry that this is a bit shorter than the other two chapters, as mentioned above, I've not been feeling all that well and...well, Final Fantasy 13 came out and it's taken up a lot of my time. I promise that an update for my other story will be coming by the end of the month, it might not be all that long, but it is in the process of being transfered from my notes to actual cohesive story, unless this one where I'm just writing it as is.

Please drop a review and if you have any suggestions, feel free to give those as well, I'm all for that kind of stuff. Thank you everyone and I hope you're enjoying March despite the current spring forth of time. (stupid Daylight Saviings, taking away that extra hour of sweet, sweet sleep)


	4. That Learning Thing

Ed awoke, blinking a few times, it was still dark out, and admittedly, he was still tired. Yet something or someone had woken him up and he couldn't quite place the sound. It wasn't him as he hadn't woken up in a cold sweat. "No nightmares from me..." he trailed off with a murmur, flexing his right arm slowly before pushing himself off the bed. He could hear whimpering from the main room in Naruto's apartment and he instantly figured it out. Now the big choice between waking up the older boy-girl or letting her sleep through it. "Fuck it..." he mumbled, making his descision and rolling off the bed.

A few seconds later, he had slowly made his way out of the bedroom, towards the kitchen, peering out into the darkness, making out the two chairs that had been pulled together with Ranma laying only on one of them, curled up into a little ball and whimpering.

"Daddy...no...I don't wanna go back into the pit..." Ed heard as he quietly moved closer. "It's scary Daddy...I don't like the kitties no more." Ed peered down and could see the tears falling down from Ranma's face. "It hurts Daddy...help me!" he continued to watch as she trembled, whimpering louder and louder.

He couldn't watch this, not anymore. "Ranma. Wake up, it's okay." Ed reached down, trying to comfort the older girl, but it was to no avail, or at least not at first. The gentle touch just sent Ranma further down the spiral of insanity, in a snap decision, Ed balled up his left hand into a fist and sent it down in a forceful punch at Ranma's head.

Suffice to say, he really wasn't surprised when he found himself in the air, being thrown sideways, somehow, and towards the balcony. '_Shit..!'_ he mentally swore as he was about to land bodily against the door. He was surprised at the angle though, it was almost completely perpandicular to the way he thought he'd be going, if at all, not to mention the fact that he was also upsidedown. A secondary surprise made itself aware in the form of a puff of smoke.

"Careful there." A nearly emotionless male voice said from behind what looked like a porcelain mask. Ed squinted at the man, looking at the mask, making out the design, that of a wolf of sorts.

"Thanks." Ed said as he was let go, landing on his feet. "Ranma, you okay now?"

"Ed?" The girl's voice called from over by the couch. "Oh shit. I'm sorry, did I throw you or something?" All traces of the crying girl had vanished, replaced by a worried one instead.

"Yeah, no biggie. I expected it, well, not towards the door, but hey." Ed shrugged, looking back to the ANBU whom just nodded and vanished again into a puff of smoke.

"Sorry about this..." Ranma murmured sheepishly. "I was having a nightmare, huh? How'd you manage to wake me if I'm still a girl?"

Ed developed a twitch on his forehead and made a note to use water next time to cause the gender swap instead of something stupid like that. "Didn't think of the water, figured you'd wake up with a threat like I do."

"Usually I just roll around in my sleep and avoid attacks." Ranma sighed and sat up a bit more, dropping her chin into her hands glumly. "Actually, you're the first person I've thrown in a long time. Pops almost always gets the drop on me and sends me into the pond outside of the house. It's a daily thing." Ranma almost giggled at that but caught herself at the last second.

Ed blinked at that, putting that into his head and trying to think it through. He didn't know Ranma's father, but he wanted to beat the shit out of him just because he heard about the Neko-Ken. However, if he the man could get the drop on Ranma every morning, what chance did he have? "I really have to meet that father of yours."

"So you can beat him up, right?" Ranma did giggle at that, for about a second before making a small coughing noise. "Ahem. Anyway. Yeah, most people want to do that to Pops for what he's done while we were on that trip."

"...I don't think I want to know anymore. I'm going to go back to bed." Ed dusted himself off and walked back towards the bedroom. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah. Sorry about wakin' you up." Ranma said softly from where she sat, uncurling her legs and spreading them back out over the second chair. "I should be fine for a good while now. Guess it was jus' talkin' about it and all."

"Shit happens and all that." Ed shrugged at the door and headed back towards his bed, stopping just as he heard Ranma's voice once more.

"Ed?"

"Yeah...?"

"...thank you."

"Don't worry about it Ranma. Get some sleep. See you in the morning."

With that, the two lost and impromptu travellers went back to their respective slumbers. They really weren't eager to see what their second day in Konoha had in store for them, hopefully it would be less surprising than the first day.

* * *

The sun rose above the horizon, showering the Hidden Village of the Leaf in it's ever-lasting glory and radiance. It broke through the darkness and the village was slowly working it's way back from the slumber of darkness as well as the repairs from the invasion from Sound and Sand were in their final stages. After the construction was to be finished, the previously brought up plans would be implimented and in due time, the Fifth Hokage's visage would be etched into the mountain side along with her predecessors.

It wouldn't take long for the process to be started and finish, bless the uses of Ninja abilities and the Earth Element.

Regardless of as such, there was a minor wrench thrown into the thick of things in the form of two travelers that should not have even made their way to the village.

Today was their first full official day within the village. They had been questioned and deemed 'safe' and non-threatening, though with a lack of respect for most forms of authority. Not like the Fifth Hokage really cared because she didn't have much respect for authority either. In that sense, she didn't mind the two that had shown up, and they had somewhat proved their worth in their first meeting by finding an actual spy. Sure it might have just been a coincidence but that was quickly cleared up within an hour of the spy being brought to Torture and Interrogation.

Suffice to say, Anko had a riot of a time pulling information from the man while she didn't have to be under Ibiki's watchful eye. She almost got to use one of her own personal toys, yet when the spy saw the device he quickly spilled the beans. Anko was put out on that, but the information on the _'Snake-Bastard'_ was more than enough to put the psychopathic grin back on her face.

Yet, that was all the day before and this day was a brand new one. Filled with sights to see, people to torture and her two new acquaintences to mess around with. That Ed kid was easy to screw with, just mention something about something being small and he'd generally freak out. Ranma was a bit harder of a case, but had the similar loss of emotions when something girly was mentioned in compairison to him.

All in all? Today would be wonderful.

Or it would be if someone would wake up.

"Ed." A voice called out from the darkened abyss.

"G'way..." the muttered response was as the boy tossed and turned on the bed.

_"Eeeeeedddddd_...." the voice drawled out.

"...Jus' five more minutes Al..."

"Seriously."

"...ZzzzzZzzzz..."

_WHAM!_

One Edward Elric awoke with a violent start, sitting up suddenly while instantly nrsing his soon to be bruised face.

"What the hell was that for?"

"You wouldn't wake up, d'uh."

"So you hit me?"

"Pay back for trying to hit me last night."

"You were having a nightmare." Ed deadpanned to Ranma.

"And I've been trying to wake you up for half an hour. Breakfast is almost ready." Ranma responded just as dryly.

"Food? Why the hell didn't you say so in the first place?"

"I'll keep that in mind next time then."

"Up yours."

"Don't swing that way, Chibi."

"Considering you're smaller than I am right now, you don't have a right to say anything Ranma-_chan_."

"Use that honorific again and you won't ever have children."

"_Scaaaaary_. Not."

"Whatever, y'gonna up and eat or not?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Anyway, wonder whom those guys are. Which one is that Naruto kid."

"Huh?"

"The picture above the bedframe, idiot."

"Dunno. I'm thinking it's the blond one. Though, they both look like punks."

"They're still ninja though."

"True, but...orange? Seriously?"

"It's a great way to practice your stealth actually."

"Seriously?"

Ranma nodded and paused, leaving the room while Ed finally got up and threw on some clothes, sitting down and waiting for the blonde to sit down with her before going on, having prepared a decent sized breakfast out of the groceries they had bought the day before with Anko.

"Yeah, think about it. It's a color that totally stands out, one peak of it and you're found. Now if you're wearing orange all the time, everyone is obviously going to know it's you, so you have to work on not being seen at all. It's a very good idea, that an' the fact that once people get used to it, a single wardrobe change and viola, instant disguise that no one ever sees coming." Ranma shrugged as she dug into her food with gusto.

"You really think a kid like that is thinking that way?" Ed asked, a bit of a bemused look on his features as he started eating as well.

"Y'never know. Ninja are weird like that sometimes." Ranma rolled her shoulders into a shrug, pausing just before she finished with a narrowing of her eyes as she looked towards the balcony door. "I mean, hell, Konatsu back home? Apparently a once in a couple generations genius kunoichi. The only ninja I'd ever really met before...well, this." Ranma paused and smirked as she stod up and placed her dishes near the sink and started to clean up. It was times like this she was glad she gone on that stupid trip with Genma, at least she knew how to clean up after herself.

"Odd." Ed said with a faint roll of his shoulders while finishing up his food.

"Oh, that's not even the best part." Ranma grinned as she walked back over to the table.

"Seriously? It gets more odd?" Ed canted a blonde eyebrow, standing up and grabbing his plate with his auto-mail arm and cleaning up after himself.

"Oh yeah. Konatsu's a guy." The grin was in full bloom as Ed nearly dropped his plate in reaction and they could hear spluttering coming from one of the 'hidden' ANBU.

"You're shittin' me, right? How the hell is a guy a kunoichi?" Ed just blinked a few times at Ranma.

"Now that's a _very_ depressing story." Ranma said with a rueful shake of her head. "I mean, it makes my childhood look like a happy bedtime story. I'd almost rather go through that stupid Neko-ken training again, really. He's really good, bit of a penny-pincher though."

Ed just snorted and shook his head. "Speaking of penny-pinching...we need to make some money." Pausing while putting the dishes away, not letting the annoyance of being in a place where he didn't have access to his own money get to him. "So that means we need to do some jobs around town."

"Well, let's see what that Hokage lady wanted then. Though, now that I think about it, we should probably see if we can get jobs that ain't to dangerous." She went over to the balcony door and opened it, looking at the masked man that was standing there reading a book. "I don't appreciate it when people come snoopin' on me y'know."

"Honestly, I was more interested in reading and waiting for you to finish before bringing you to Tsunade-sama." The man responded with what looked like an eyesmile. It was kind of creepy really. "Though, I am interested in that last statement, if you don't mind explaining." Ranma was only paying half attention, more lost at the gravity defying silver hair than anything, though she snapped back into reality when she saw Ed out of the corner of her eye, wondering the same thing.

"Well, really, it has to do with the way we got here. Never know when we're gonna get ported out. More than likely at a horrible time too, y'know?" Ranma rolled her shoulders into a shrug and got a nod in response.

"Well, I know how I got here and honestly, I'm not about to try and do it to get away." Ed said with a grimace and redid up his pony-tail. "I'm not like those bastards who's plans I was screwing with."

"Oh?"

"...I don't want to talk about it right now, and if you try to force it, we're going to have problems."

"That's something I'm sure none of us visible people will ever do...nor will any of those invisible people around here, I'm sure." the man Ed and Ranma remembered as Kakashi remarked, not even bothering to glance at the hidden ANBU escorts. "Maybe in another village, but here in Konoha, we protect our comrades." Even if they didn't want it in some cases.

"Huh. I think I'm liking this place more than back home." Ranma mused, rubbing her chin in thought.

"I just wish my brother was here personally." Ed shrugged and looked over at Kakashi and Ranma for a moment. "Lemme just get my jacket and we can go. After that, I want to start showing you how to do some Alchemy."

"Sure thing, I can help you with your Martial Arts." Ranma said in kind.

"...And I'll be helping you both learn how to control your Chakra, or what we call Chakra anyway." Kakashi finished off. That caused Ranma to perk up a little while she looked at Kakashi with a canted eyebrow, noting the man smiling slightly behind his mask. "It's the least we could do for finding that Oto-Nin."

"Hah. Ain't no problem," Ranma grinned. "We might as well head out and see the Old Lady in charge." He caught the narrowed eye coming from Kakashi and the grin turned into a vile smirk. "Oh please, it's hard not to tell, her Ki is a olt older than she looks. I could feel it easy. I deal with an old Ghoul back home that's more than a few centuries old. The Old Letch is just as old as she is too."

"You know, now that I think about it, I thought she felt kind of off too." Ed narrowed his eyes in thought and shrugged a little bit. "Might've been something I picked up from the old bastard though."

They left through the regular enterance and went down to the ground level while they continued to talk about small things they had been noticing here and there. It was as if something was different for the two of them, and outside of the fact that they weren't whenever and where-ever they had come from, everything felt cleaner somehow. To Edward it felt as if was living back in Resembool and to Ranma it was as if she was back out in the wilds, but during one of the quiet breaks that Genma once stopped on here and there.

This place seemed backwards to Ed though, it was a lot more primitive than he was used to, the lack of cars, though the fact that some things were powered by electricity and others were lit by open actual flames made the entire place seem like an old mish-mash of old and new technology. He was also starting to feel a little bit left behind as he watched some ninja hopping from roof to roof while he, a man in the Military was walking around like a civilian. Frankly, it annoyed the hell out of him.

Hell, he just saw a bunch of _kids_ doing it.

Life was unfair.

"One of the first things I want to learn is how to do that."

"Do what?"

"_That_."

"Oh. It'll be hard with your leg."

"Don't care. I'll learn it, dammit."

"With Chakra it'll be easy, it's why those kids could do it." Kakashi cut in.

"Man, that kind of makes me feel pathetic. They're younger than me when I learned from Pops."

"Hell, at least you can do it you jerk. I'm just an average martial artist back home."

"Yeah, but I bet you yer more smarter than anyone at tons of stuff."

"...Well, I can conlcude I'm at least better at speaking."

"Stuff it."

Ed just grinned as Ranma gave him a red-eye and stuck her tongue out.

"Now now children, the big fancy building straight ahead is where we need to go." Kakashi flipped out his book and started to read again, amused that neither of them knew what it was he was reading.

"So, what are we exactly going to talk to her about anyway?" Ranma blinked.

"No clue." Kakashi shrugged, not even looking at either of them.

"Great. I'm pretty sure we went through most of the crap we needed yesterday. But I guess that desn't cover it." Ed sighed. "Then again, I suppose that's not that big of a surprise. Foreign country, foreign military, have to cover all of their bases."

"Does that mean I'm not a civilian anymore?" Ranma blinked a second time, then a few more times as a frown processed it's way across her face.

"Good question. Make sure to ask her that when we get to her office, if she's not drunk already." Kakashi rejoined.

"_Great_..." The utter lack of enjoyment just screamed amusement. Really. Honest! "So we've got an old drunk, I hope there's no old pervert too."

"Ahh..." Kakashi just barely held in the cough. "I don't believe there is." That's it Kakashi, go with the half-truth. Those usually work. Yep.

Ed and Ranma both just sweatdropped at that and shook their heads.

Not much longer after that they found their way to the Hokage's office, sure enough there Tsunade sat, though she wasn't half asleep or amazingly enough, drunk. She was, however actually doing some paperwork, causing Kakashi to stiffen as soon as he opened the door and was almost walked into. He was in the mind to run away and gather backup and also nearly voiced his suspicions about this obvious fake when she looked up at the three of them.

"Well? Don't just stand in the door!" Tsunade snapped.

"Gomen, gomen." Kakashi said without a trace of being sorry before putting his book away. "You wanted to see them, so here they are."

"Wait a minute. You're on time. Who are you and what've you done to Kakashi?" Tsunade's eyes narrowed a little at the masked Jonin.

"Wait a minute. You're doing paperwork. Who are you and what've you done to Tsunande-sama?" Kakashi rejoined with one of his creepy eye-smiles before disappearing out of the room in a swirl of leaves.

Tsunade managed to look only slightly disgusted before she looked at both Ranma, still a girl, and Ed. "Alright you two. As things stand, you both are going to be temporary members of the village, if you betray my trust, I'll have you both hunted down and killed, got that?

'...'Eh, sure. No big deal." Ranma shrugged.

"Same." Ed nodded slowly.

"Good, any questions?" Tsunade pushed herself back into her chair, letting out a deep sigh at the same time. She was really getting sick of all of this bloody paperwork.

"Well, one thing or another actually. Was thinking about it ealier." Ranma brought up, looking at Ed whom was obviously the better speaker so he should say what Ranma was obviously thinking.

"Jerk." Ed mumbled while rubbing the birdge of his nose. "Well, it's like this. He's not sure how he got here..."

"...She at the moment." Tsunade pointed out.

"I'm a GUY!"

"Whatever. Anyway, not sure how that happened for _her_, and I'm not sure how the difference in time will flow when it comes to either of us being grabbed and ported out. I mean, we could be here for months, we could be here for days. One of us might leave before the other, or maybe not. As such, I think it'd be best if we were either staying inside or near the village with people watching us or..." Ed trailed off, blinking a few times before looking over at Ranma for a moment before going on. "Or we help with important things as just two added people on top of whom would normally go so as to help expedite the process."

"Expi-wha?"

"Make it faster, Ranma. Seriously, we need to buy you a dictionary."

"If you don't stop makin' fun of me I'm gonna shove my fist down your throat, alright?" Said girl in question held up a dainty little fist threateningly. If Ed hadn't watched what she did yesterday, even as a guy, he would've just laughed in her face otherwise.

"I'm just sayin' is all." Ed held up his hands with a rogue-ish grin plastered on his face before looking back at Tsunade. "Regardless of as such, I'm willing to help the repairs go by faster so you'll spend less money and waste less materials and any other projects like that."

"Sounds ideal to me, anything you specifically wish to do, Ranma?" Tsunande leaned back while crossing her arms over her chest.

"Uhh, if you need me to beat someone up, I'm all for it." She let out a bit of a grimace, "All I'm good at is bein' a Martial Artist, though I guess I'm a good hand in the kitchen an' I make a great waitress. Mind you, I'm startin' to cramp up a little, so maybe I should hold off on the waitressin' so I don't bite someone's head off."

"If you need anything for that, just head to the hospital and ask for Shizune and she'll get you something." A look of sympathy crossed the Godaime's face before nodding while thinking the rest of it over. "Well, Ed, I do have a request for you to do if you don't mind and when Kakashi gets back in an hour, you can learn how to do some Chakra exercises, simple things really."

"I'm all for it." Ranma grinned brightly. If it had anything to with fighting the boy-turned-girl would just eat it all up.

"And what was it you wanted me to do?" Ed finally asked.

"Well, it's like this..."

_

* * *

_

A Couple Hours Later:

Ed stood on top of Hokage Mountain, his arms crossed and a wide smirk plastered on his face as he looked down on his newest masterpiece. Sure he could've been done hours ago, but there were actual calculations to be done when it came to operating on a scale this large, that and he was a genius and everyone knows that the work of a genius can never be rushed.

Well, outside of combat situations that is.

Anyway...

In turth, the FullMetal Alchemist had spent his time wisely, fixing up the overly large crack that had split the face of the, what was it, Sand dime? _No_? Well, the third face on the mountain in any regard, and he had also smoothed out the features of the rest so they looked a bit less unrealistic. He had used the extra mass from where the fifth face was supposed to be carved in to do that and then finally made the final adjustments to make out the face and brought the stone up underneath him in blocks so that the excess could be used in some of the construction towards making the outer walls better.

Of course, the diminuitve (not that he'd ever admit to it verbally) Alchemist had an audience of the supposed Fifth Hokage, the Kakashi dude and a still female Ranma; whom was also starting to get irritable. Yet despite that, they were obviously impressed with what Ed could do.

"I am so damn good." He finally said as he turned around, looking like a cocky little bastard.

"Like I said ealier, yer teaching me that." Ranma retorted.

"Yeah, yeah, later, I have to bask in the greatness that is myself." Ed rejoined.

"Now now you two. No need to act like _little_ children." Kakashi said from over his book, looking like he was barely interested, placing obvious emphasis on the word that would annoy the both of them. He then cocked his head off to the side and did his creepy eye smile over his book as he looked towards Ed. "Nice job by the way, it looks pretty good from down at ground level."

"And how the hell can you tell?" Ranma asked before Ed could get a word in. Said blond had an eyebrow cocked however.

"Now that..." he trailed off and brought a single finger up to his lips. "...is a secret."

Tsunande reached out and whapped Kakashi upside the head while Ed and Ranma both sweatdropped.

"You deserved that." Ed snorted.

Tsunande shook her head and looked at them before clearing her throat to get their attention. "Alright you three, as mentioned before Kakashi decided to show up even later than usual..."

"...I was only two hours late. Besides, it's payback for that crack at your office ealier."

"Do you want me to hit you like I do Jiraiya?"

"I'll be good."

"Now, as I was saying, since you've done me this favor, and saved us months of work, not to mention all the money, the least we could do is show you the basics of survival around here." Tsunande finished.

Ranma raised her hand at that point in question. "We won't have to...kill anyone, will we? I don't remember if I asked that yet..." she trailed off, mumbling something about stupid furry hellspawn and nightmares of doom.

"Kill or be killed, in a good amount of cases." Kakashi said in a neutral tone, finally putting his book away and nodding to Tsunade, he'd just take it from here. The Hokage nodded in responses and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. "We prefer to use it as a last resort here in Konoha. We're pretty much the odd village out with most of our beliefs. We pride ourselves on that and our teamwork."

"I've got no problem with that, personally." Ed shrugged a little. "Honestly, this will probably be the longest away from my brother I've ever been, I'm used to working with him and I get along with Ranma just fine."

"I...I'm not used to working with people." Ranma grimaced a little. "There's the odd opportunity here and there, but back home it's pretty much 'Backstab Ranma Day' everyday." She sighed a little and shook her head. "They were gettin' better, but y'know, they've probably thought I've up and disappeared and am planning something perverse or am cheatin' on someone with someone else." Her voice got bitter at that last point. "I hate being called a pervert and I don't like perverts either."

"You don't hate perverts too?" Kakashi asked while him and Ed both had noticed the different phrasing she had used. The three of them were geniuses after all.

"Naw, most of them just annoy me an' all. I mean, hate is a pretty negative emotion and y'gotta do a lot to make me hate you. I mean, I've gotten mad at a few guys, but I never hated them. Couple came close, but hey." Ranma shrugged.

"I can understand and agree with that." Ed nodded silently, he did at one time, for a long time really, hate his father. Passionately at that, he despised and hated that man.

"Most people three times your age to don't understand that. Most people don't understand what hate or love really are." Kakashi nodded sagely. "Well, we might as well get on with showing you the first of the training exercises.

With that, they both spent about half an hour as Kakashi went over the basics, the sensations, feelings and movements for drawing upon their chakra. It didn't take either of them all that long to start on the basics where they could starting using it. Ranma had more experience in that he could use one half of his Chakra potential visibly, he just needed to get the other half down, and with the proper teaching, he'd be a natural at using it. Yet, Ed was the one that showed signs of being able to use his Chakra first, sure he had problems with the seals, what with his automail arm and all but he mastered the basics with unforseen ease. At first, Ed had frowned at how easy he was getting it yet the realization came to him pretty quickly causing him to grimace down at his leg and nod to himself in understanding. At the end of the second half an hour, Kakashi called for a halt to look the two over.

Ranma looked likes he hadn't exerted herself at all and Kakashi knew why after going over Kurenai report, his control was a damn sight above average as well and his first opinion held easily when Tsunade had asked him ealier from when he was spying and watching the boy turned girl. He was a natural genius to put it simply.

Edward though? If Ranma was on the level, Ed was on the hill above it and he was just that much higher in most areas and Kakashi couldn't quite place why. All of Kurenai's Genjutsu had failed on the boy, every single one and Kakashi couldn't quite fathom that; after all, She was as good at Genjutsu as Gai was at Taijutsu. The short boy didn't even need much beyond the basic explination to start drawing upon his chakra, it had been as if he had just _known_ how. Yet, all in all, despite his great conditioning, he was still was starting to show a sheen of sweat since he just wasn't used to this kind of exertion. All in all though, he would've been the perfect student.

"Alright now, what can the two of you tell me? Ranma, you first." Kakashi clapped his hands together to make sure he had their attention.

"Ah, I've almost got it. Something still feels off though, probably cause my Ki is overpowered compared to it and I ain't used to usin' the other side, whatever it's called." Ranma blinked a few times. "Probably cause I'm used to pullin' an emotion with my Ki, and the Chakra don't use it. Should have it down later in the day, easy as pie."

"I figured of as such. This stuff is taught to kids after all, and since you're smarter than the brats we get at the academy, I hope you'll have it down soon. Ed, your turn." Another creepy eye-smile. Seriously, those need to stop.

"Figured it out, can do it stupid easy, just like Alchemy." Ed shrugged a little. "Well, it's a bit less complex than that, so it's really easier to do, but I don't think I'll have as great of a success using it as my Alchemy, it draws the power from me in exchange where as Alchemy just uses the materials available and rearranges them."

"Really? And your control?" They both blinked at each other before looking at Kakashi in thought.

Ed went first with, "Mine, I'd say is close to perfect, I can feel the differences in my body, it's pretty easy to notice."

"Ah, I'd say mine's pretty good too. I can't exactly feel it like that, but I can tell when something is draining me like that because of my Ki use." Ranma grinned and just barely caught herself from giggling like an actual girl. "I just need to work on it and I'll get it up to the level of the rest of my skills."

The silver haired Jounin grinned under his mask at that. "Excellent, this is going better than I'd hoped. Alright then, since we've still got quite a lot of time left, I'll show you how to do three basic techniques that are taught at the Academy. Transformation, the Henge no Jutsu, Substitution, the Kawamari no Jutsu, and Clone, the Bushin no Jutsu." He then proceeded to slowly show both of them the hands seals for each individual one. "Go through the sets before adding in your chakra. Try the Henge first as it's the easiest of the bunch." He looked at Ranma at this point. "Just use your imagination to become your male body when you do it." Then to Ed. "You try your brother."

It didn't come to much surprise that a few minutes later with a single puff of smoke that gril-type Ranma became male-type. "Hey th...aw, dammit, I still sound like a girl."

"Well, that's just something you'll need to work on when it comes to your Henge. It's the most minor of genjutsu one can learn." Kakashi remarked, "Let it go for now, and besides, at the rate you're going, you're doing better than almost all students at the academy." Kakashi thought back to Naruto's so called 'Sexy Jutsu' and shook his head at that. How the boy had turned a genjutsu into a ninjutsu, he'd never understand.

Ed however, had been watching and waiting for Ranma to get it before he tried it himself, he went through the hand seals slowly a few times before nodding to himself and going through them once more while adding in the sensation of chakra. One large puff of smoke later and he stood there as a giant suit of armor. "This is kind of cool." he said in a perfect imitation of Al's voice. He then proceed to check how well he did the technique and with the others watching in fascination he opened the front of the armor. "So, how's it look? There should be a symbol there in the back, is there?"

"Yes. There is, it looks like dried blood." Kakashi said softly, wondering the exact implications of what this meant. This was supposed to be his brother?

"Perfect." the disembodied sound of young boy was starting to be really creepy, especially since it came to be just coming from everywhere. A puff of smoke later and Ed stood there with a rueful shake of his head, he was then joined by another puff of smoke as Ranma let his Henge go too.

"Well, next will be the Bushin..." Kakashi trailed off and showed the signs next and it didn't take long for either of them to catch on to that either.

* * *

**Notes from the Author:**

Alright, before I get into anything else, like responding to reviews and minor critics, I'd like to point out that yes they're both learning how to use Chakra. Why? Why the hell not? I like the idea of it, and it makes for fun stuff to do. Though, I'm quite sure the biggest concern and comment I'm going to be addressing is how Ed is handling things, and to put it simply? He's seen _The Truth, _and that's just how I'm going to roll. He knows how to do this the basic level of instinct, just like Alchemy, meaning he'll be better at it than Ranma, it's cut and dry like that. Will he be able to beat Ranma? I don't know, Ranma has more training, more power and a bigger imagination, he can come up with stupid powerful attacks on the fly. It'll be interesting when I get out of this arc into the next one and I'm just about through with the beginning of this one and onto the conflict that **Judah** was hoping for.

Now, here's the thing. I was wondering if I should add a permanent cast member from the Naruto 'verse to our two travellers. If you've got suggestions, drop them off in the reviews. I'm trying not to do OC's in this fic either, or go with unknowns, but if you've got a suggestion, it'd be much appreciated. I mean, I might go find and steal Naruto too.

Now onto the reviews, I'll start from the back and go forward, hopefully you aren't to disappointed with me.

**Fallacies:** I like OP Ranma, but I won't be making him to OP when it comes to Jutsu, when it comes down to it, he'll just add it to his Taijutsu and use it to screw with his opponents like he usually would. To him, it's just another list of techniques he'll use to kick some ass, that and most of the techniques he'll learn here won't be as powerful as his usual things anyway. Though, I'll admit, he usually bruteforces it with the Moko Takashiba, he did learn it after the HSH and that requires concentration and good deal of manipulation of his own body.

**Kariston Draconis:** More than likely I'll have minor SM crosses if they ever get back to whenever in time Ranma is from. I've got an odd view in this fic in that the majority of manga/anime/books/shows happen in the real world. Ranma is active in Nerima at the same time the Senshi are active in Juuban in the 80's. I'd say the Elemental Countries are way back, hidden in a massive Genjutsu in the Pacific Ocean and Ed is probably in the late 20's with the same thing around Antarctica or the North Pole or something. I'm making it up as I go around, but this is 'Earth' everyone is from. I also might make back tracks later one, it's an interesting idea for sure. As for breaking them apart, we'll see later on.

**Naosj: **Nope, not following the Naruto time line any further than a little bit into the area between the split. It gives a writer free reign over what happens with the Chuunin exams other than the fact that people get promoted. As for how I'm taking it forward, this entire fic is an experiment, so I don't know how I'm taking it either, it's more of a surprise that way.

**RobotPirateNinja:** I'd have to say it's because he doesn't understand it yet, but he'll start as of now so he'll be able to counter it easier.

**Vandenbz: **Ranma isn't getting a pairing with any of 3A sad to admit, but that's because I have that entire bit my head, the _only _thing I have planned out at all is the beginning to the Negima stuff. It's an offshoot of what I mentioned to Kairston above there, Ranma happens in the late 80's...where as Negima hands a few years after the turn of the new millenia. Take that into consideration and look at the character names and you might figure out what I've got planned.

With that, I'll have to apologize to those Anko lovers, she won't be getting with Ranma in this fic, sad to say. (I love her too, she's so crazy!) and with that, I'll bring this section of notes to a close.

I hope everyone is enjoying their May, and to those that just finished their College stuff, congrats. I'll try to make my updates a bit faster and longer after this, but I'm trying to work on something that'll actually get me paid. XD. Well, that and I've got another couple of fics in the stages of planning. Maybe something dark and crazy to boot. I do that pretty well. And with that, I'm out for the evening.

...

P.S: Did everyone read the new chapter of FMA? Watching what Al did? I think I've got something in my eye, so if you'll excuse me...


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